The short film “Slaughterbots” depicts a near future in which swarms of micro drones assassinate thousands of people for their political beliefs. Released in November 2017 by academics and activists warning of the dangers of advanced artificial intelligence (AI), it quickly went viral, attracting over 3 million views to date. It helped spark a public debate on the future of autonomous weapons and put pressure on diplomats meeting at the United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons. But this kind of speculative science fiction storytelling isn’t just useful for attracting attention. The people who design and build advanced technology can use…

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