With Skynet and "I, Robot" seeming less like science fiction and more like an eventual reality thanks to tech advancements, Atlantic Council's Cyber Statecraft Initiative Senior Fellow Jason Healey warned members of Congress Wednesday of the threats posed by robotic soldiers and artificial intelligence that could enable cyberespionage or worse.
Healey told a House panel committee with oversight of the Pentagon that he expects the capabilities will be developed sooner than expect and may even be present within the next decade, according to the Hill.
“The part of it that particularly worries me the most is that on the defensive side many people are thinking that artificial intelligence, new heuristics, better analytics and automation are going to help the defense, that if only we can roll these things out faster we will be better and the system will be more stable,” Healey said.
“I think that these technologies are going to aid the offense much more than it aids the defense because to defend against these kinds of attacks, you need your own super computer," he said.
Furthermore officials expressed concerns that while some public sector entities may be able to afford the computer systems necessary to combat these threats, small and mid-sized enterprises may not be able to afford them, leaving much of the nation unprotected.
