General Anthony Cotton took control of the Air Force's Global Strike Command (GSC) in 2021. If you don't know, the GSC controls all of America's nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile operations, which quite literally means that General Anthony Cotton is one of the most dangerous men on the planet.
And you would hope that someone with that sort of power at his fingertips would be a smart man, or at least halfway educated in what not to do with nuclear weapons, like, say, letting artificial intelligence within 1,000 miles of them.
There are so many great cautionary tales out there: Terminator, War Games, Colossus: The Forbin Project, etc., etc; this should be a given.
And yet, in a speech at the Department of Defense Intelligence Information System (DoDIIS) in Omaha, Nebraska, General Cotton said that we need to bring AI into the decision-making process on when and how to use nukes.
Growing threats, an overwhelming flow of sensor data, and increasing cybersecurity concerns are driving the need for AI to keep American forces a step ahead of those seeking to challenge the U.S., Cotton said. 'Advanced systems can inform us faster and more efficiently,' he explained.
To be fair, Cotton isn't advocating just turning the whole shebang over to the human-killing robots.
'AI will enhance our decision-making capabilities,' Cotton said. 'But we must never allow artificial intelligence to make those decisions for us.'
But that's always how it starts, right?
Give the computers a little access, and the next thing you know, it's nuclear Armageddon.
In all seriousness, it's not just the threat of a robot apocalypse; AI is ridiculously flawed. On top of hallucinations, there's "poisoned" data, inaccurate algorithms, and eleven-fingered kangaroos.
And even I want to nuke that last one.
Please though, someone, tell this guy that this is a bad idea, and he should feel bad for suggesting it.
I'll leave the speech in its entirety right here for you.
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