Stuart Russell is right that AI’s builders fear losing control of it (Experts are warning: our AI arms race is putting humanity at risk, 11 August). But it is not only a future superintelligence’s problem; it is already loaded into weapons, where a loss of control kills a civilian today, not humanity tomorrow.
An autonomous drone told to clear a “kill box” is the genie your other columnists described (How do we prevent AI agents from going rogue? It starts with a new kind of measurement, 18 July): it does what it is told, killing whatever is inside, combatant or child. The gap between a target and a lawful target is the principle of distinction, which no instruction closes, because the instruction was lawful.
