The government has cancelled a multimillion-dollar contract with the university department it commissioned to devise ethical rules for "killer robots" deployed alongside Australian soldiers and fighter pilots in war. The University of NSW in Canberra was working on how artificially intelligent machines capable of deciding when to use lethal force should be programmed so they wouldn't commit atrocities.
The five-year contract has been cut abruptly, with three years to run.
A dispute arose between the military and the civilian academic researchers who were unhappy at what they saw as attempts to control the research and its results. It's a tenet of universities that researchers should be free to produce whatever results their research leads them to.
A formal complaint about attempts to limit academic freedom was raised and then the contract was cut, according to one person familiar with the matter....MORE
