The list is extensive and includes some of the most influential names in the overlapping worlds of technology, science and academia.
Among them are billionaire inventor and OpenAI founder Elon Musk, Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, artificial intelligence researcher Stuart Russell, as well as the three founders of Google DeepMind — the company’s premier machine learning research group.
In total, more than 160 organizations and 2,460 individuals from 90 countries promised this week not to participate in or support the development and use of lethal autonomous weapons. The pledge says artificial intelligence is expected to play an increasing role in military systems and calls upon governments and politicians to introduce laws regulating such weapons “to create a future with strong international norms.”