My God, military/prison robot applications signal a world rushing headlong into a Terminator/Skynet situation. Ray Kurzweil seems to think an Age Of Spiritual Machines awaits us but that looks as naïve as every other hope that technology would save us from war and oppression. And who's going to be liable for mistakes within the well-developed legal boiler-plate for software presently - that basically says, 'you can't sue us if it doesn't really work'.
At one time, there were jokes made about 'what if cars ran about as well as some operating systems' ( turn off your car and reboot it). Now, that's exactly where we seem to be headed. Automated phone response systems might just as well be run by an autistic person with a low IQ. Websites leave out critical specifics or fail to deal with emergencies - exactly what AI should be capable of handling and isn't. E-mail is a wonderful thing (as here) but customer service types can often freely ignore pleas for help without consequence ( my experience).
