China warned the US administration on Wednesday that excessive use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the military sector risks plunging the world into the nightmarish universe of the film “Terminator”, where machines take power.
An ethical debate on the military applications of AI is currently agitating the United States. The government of President Donald Trump is waging a standoff against the American start-up Anthropic, on which it is imposing sanctions.
Specializing in AI, the company refuses to let the American army use its technology without restrictions, as required by the administration, in particular for mass surveillance of populations or the automation of deadly attacks.
“Unlimitedly continuing the militarization of artificial intelligence, using it as an instrument to violate the sovereignty of other nations, allowing it to excessively influence war decisions, and letting algorithms hold the power of life and death over human beings not only undermines the ethical foundations and responsibilities in war, but also risks causing a loss of technological control,” Jiang Bin, a spokesperson for the Chinese Defense Ministry, said Wednesday.
Apocalyptic future
“A dystopia such as that depicted in the American film + Terminator + could one day become reality,” he underlined in a press release, in response to a question about Washington’s desire to give the American army unrestricted access to AI.
“Terminator” was released in 1984, starring actor Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role. It describes an apocalyptic future where, in 2029, robots controlled by superior artificial intelligence fight human beings.
The US Department of Defense last week added Anthropic to its list of companies presenting a “national security risk to supplies” to the Pentagon, in response to the company’s refusal to lift restrictions on the use of its AI.
This registration forces all service providers to immediately deprive themselves of Anthropic and its generative AI assistant Claude as part of their services to the ministry.
This action came after a statement from Donald Trump, who ordered, at the end of February, all government departments to “immediately cease all use of Anthropic’s technology.”
According to several media outlets, Anthropic’s AI models were used in the preparation of the US-Israeli offensive against Iran.
