6 days ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
China's military mouthpiece warns of ‘moral pitfalls' of humanoid fighters
The official newspaper of the
Chinese military has warned of potential ethical concerns associated with the use of humanoid fighters.
On Thursday, an analysis in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Daily said the military should conduct 'ethical and legal research' on humanoid robots to 'avoid moral pitfalls'.
'Military
humanoid robots are the most humanlike weapons to date, and their large-scale, normalised use could lead to indiscriminate killings and accidental deaths, which would inevitably result in legal charges and moral condemnation,' the article said.
The article was signed by Yuan Yi, Ma Ye and Yue Shiguang, but the newspaper did not specify their affiliations.
The authors cited American science fiction writer Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, a set of principles that have influenced discussions about the ethics of real-world applications in the field.
The authors said that militarised humanoid robots 'clearly violate' the first of Asimov's laws, which states that a robot 'may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm'.
