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The Military AI China Technology

China's Brightest Children Are Being Recruited To Develop AI 'Killer Bots' (scmp.com) 206

According to The South China Morning Post, "some of China's smartest students have been recruited straight from high school to begin training as the world's youngest AI weapons scientists." A total of 27 boys and four girls all under the age of 18 were chosen for the four-year "experimental program for intelligent weapons systems" at the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) from more than 5,000 candidates. From the report: The BIT is one of the country's top weapons research institutes, and the launch of the new program is evidence of the weight it places on the development of AI technology for military use. "These kids are all exceptionally bright, but being bright is not enough," said a BIT professor who was involved in the screening process but asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject. "We are looking for other qualities such as creative thinking, willingness to fight, a persistence when facing challenges," he said. "A passion for developing new weapons is a must ... and they must also be patriots."

Each student will be mentored by two senior weapons scientists, one from an academic background and the other from the defense industry, according to the program's brochure. After completing a short program of course work in the first semester, the students will be asked to choose a speciality field, such as mechanical engineering, electronics or overall weapon design. They will then be assigned to a relevant defense laboratory where they will be able to develop their skills through hands-on experience.

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China's Brightest Children Are Being Recruited To Develop AI 'Killer Bots'

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    Gotta catch'em young before they learn about social structures and, the party does not allow, start to experiment with those

  • ...or the synopsis a new book in Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Shadow" [wikipedia.org] series?
    • And in the long run, the children themselves became the national resources to exploit. Graf made it his mission to keep those kids off of Earth and not subject to the nation's whims, but in control of a 'cooperative', the International Fleet.

      Does China's actions set the stage for a Battle School in the Lagrange point?

  • sounds a little like the hitler youth is war coming?

  • Got to nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.
  • Gaps (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Mr President, we must not allow a killer bot gap!

    • by gtvr ( 1702650 )
      Maybe we should just come up with a doomsday machine. As long as we don't keep it secret.
  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday November 07, 2018 @11:02PM (#57609836)
    automated kill bots would be my #1 priority. Throughout history the one thing that has consistently challenged my rule has been the military I use to keep power. Specifically charismatic leaders I needed to whip the troops into the kind of frenzy they need to die for me.

    Kill bots let me do away that problem. Now all I need is a couple of geeky engineers to run my military and oppress everybody else. Mix in automated factories for making my stuff and I don't even need consumers. I can just own everything and use the ownership to decide who lives and who dies, giving me ultimate power.

    And as a member of the ruling class, what else is there for me?
    • by SqueakyMouse ( 1003426 ) on Thursday November 08, 2018 @04:03AM (#57610654)
      That doesn't sound like ultimate power to me. That sounds like a scenario in which the geeky engineers can overthrow you. They do run the military after all.
      • by freax ( 80371 )

        Give the geeks a lot of freshly printed money.

        • Geeks don't have the same craving for power that a Generalissimo has. They also lack the Charisma to get any support, and one geek on his own can't maintain an army of kill bots. At least not yet.
    • by gtvr ( 1702650 )
      Then the Doctor lands and gives your cybermen emotion, and their heads all explode
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Killbots might be worse than a human army. Turning humans against the ruling class requires many different tactics and is a prolonged process. Turning killbots against them is a single exploit, a buffer overflow leading to code injection somewhere.

    • by bigpat ( 158134 )

      automated kill bots would be my #1 priority. Throughout history the one thing that has consistently challenged my rule has been the military I use to keep power. Specifically charismatic leaders I needed to whip the troops into the kind of frenzy they need to die for me.

      Kill bots let me do away that problem. Now all I need is a couple of geeky engineers to run my military and oppress everybody else. Mix in automated factories for making my stuff and I don't even need consumers. I can just own everything and use the ownership to decide who lives and who dies, giving me ultimate power.

      And as a member of the ruling class, what else is there for me?

      As a geeky engineer I hope they buy that line of reasoning.

  • I don't see why automated soldiers should be a high priority for the 2nd most populated country in the world. They have plenty of organic brains to hunt and aim.

    Unless maybe they feel the only way to attack a mass swarm of AI drones is with another mass swarm of AI drones.

    • The fact that this was publicly announced just means it's a PR stunt by the Beijing Institute of Technology. If you think about it, all it says is "we've recruited our first class for a new four-year program that will likely be relevant in the future weapons development industry."

    • by gtvr ( 1702650 )
      10 million or 100 million soldiers won't do anything against our aircraft carriers. If they have weapons that can take those out, take our F22s even w/o radar lock, or otherwise out-smart our smart weapons then their soldiers can do whatever they want.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    They are young enough to be morally programmable, and not wise enough to think about possible negative global consequences of their efforts...

  • by wolfheart111 ( 2496796 ) on Thursday November 08, 2018 @12:20AM (#57610134)
    I love China,I wish we could cooperate better. :(
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Why love the only fascist ethnostate left? When their Han-nationalism ends, only then will the Chinese people enter the modern world.

  • Small step (Score:5, Insightful)

    by religionofpeas ( 4511805 ) on Thursday November 08, 2018 @01:33AM (#57610356)

    Once you have AI killer bots to defend the homeland, it's only a small step to use them to keep your own population in check.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    wasn't it China who has been carrying out military excursions and invasions into other foreign countries during much of the 20th century, and the last 15 years? Or was that some other country?

    Difference between China and U.S. is that China has a defense budget, U.S. has an invasion budget. Don't try to make China out as aggressive. History has shown that they are the most peaceful superpower to ever exist, while the U.S. is corrupt and thrives on making war.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I think that the international community must stand up against things such as this.

    If China will not close down its program by itself, a coalition will need to be formed to bomb the Chinese sites where this is taking place, to prevent it from happening.

    • They don't, because there's nothing to fear.
      You want to be scared of the projects like this that you DON'T know of. Hint; they're probably not situated in China.

  • to cheat.

    Step one: Get yourself some bright youngsters, strip away the bits you don't need and stick the rest in a mobile weapons platform.

    Step two: Lie, telling everyone you created a true AI killbot. Oh, and tell the parents there was a terrible accident.

For God's sake, stop researching for a while and begin to think!

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