Please Please Please The head of the United Nations is begging world leaders to please, for all that is good, not to use artificial intelligence to control their nuclear arsenals. In a recorded address played at the US Arms Control Association’s annual meeting in Washington last week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres made an impassioned plea not just for nuclear disarmament, but for binding promises not to use AI to control weaponry — which, let’s face it, seems like a pretty obvious rule. “Humanity is on a knife’s edge, the risk of a nuclear weapon being used has reached heights not seen since the Cold War,” Guterres warned. “States are engaged in a qualitative arms race. Technologies like artificial intelligence are multiplying the danger.” “Nuclear blackmail has reemerged,” he continued, “with some recklessly threatening nuclear catastrophe.” Armed and Ready As The Guardian notes, the secretary-general’s remarks were issued 600 days ahead of the expiration of the 2010 New Start treaty, the final arms agreement between Russia and the United States limiting and reducing each country’s strategic arms capabilities. In the more than 14 years since it was signed, Russia has repeatedly threatened nuclear war and resisted treaty-imposed inspections — and with it expiring in less than two years, those threats are becoming all the more unsettling. Indeed, during his address, Guterres pointed out that “the regime designed to prevent the use, testing and proliferation of nuclear weapons is weakening” and later implored both countries to “get back to the negotiating table, fully…UN Head Implores Dimwit Leaders Not to Give AI Control of Nuclear Weapons