The Reading / Listening - Weapons - Level 0

The USA will spend $2 billion on artificial intelligence for weapons. This is the most it has ever spent. It wants the most advanced weapons in the world - better than China's and Russia's. The USA wants weapons that will not make mistakes. An official said: "We think we can accelerate two decades of progress into five years."

The new weapons could make their own decisions, without any humans helping. This could mean innocent people being killed. These weapons can already choose targets on their own. Generals do not want to let the weapons decide which targets to attack. The generals want to do this.

Try the same news story at these levels:

    Weapons - Level 1,  Weapons - Level 2   or  Weapons - Level 3

Sources
  • https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/8/17833160/pentagon-darpa-artificial-intelligence-ai-investment
  • https://money.cnn.com/2018/09/07/technology/darpa-artificial-intelligence/index.html
  • https://interestingengineering.com/us-department-of-defense-to-invest-2-billion-in-ai-research


Make sure you try all of the online activities for this reading and listening - There are dictations, multiple choice, drag and drop activities, crosswords, hangman, flash cards, matching activities and a whole lot more. Please enjoy :-)

Phrase Matching

Paragraph 1

  1. The USA
  2. artificial intelligence
  3. the most it has
  4. It wants the most
  5. better than
  6. not make
  7. We think we can
  8. two decades
  1. advanced weapons
  2. accelerate
  3. for weapons
  4. of progress
  5. ever spent
  6. China's
  7. will spend $2 billion
  8. mistakes

Paragraph 2

  1. weapons could make their
  2. without any humans
  3. This could mean innocent
  4. These weapons can
  5. choose targets on
  6. let the weapons
  7. which
  8. The generals want
  1. targets to attack
  2. own decisions
  3. decide
  4. helping
  5. to do this
  6. already choose
  7. their own
  8. people being killed

Listening — Listen and fill in the gaps

(1) ___________________ spend $2 billion on artificial intelligence for weapons. This (2) ___________________ it has ever spent. It wants the most advanced weapons (3) ___________________ - better than China's and Russia's. The USA (4) ___________________ will not make mistakes. An official said: "We (5) ___________________ accelerate two decades of progress (6) ___________________."

The new weapons could (7) ___________________ decisions, without any humans helping. (8) ___________________ innocent people being killed. These (9) ___________________ choose targets (10) ___________________. Generals do not want to let the weapons (11) ___________________ to attack. The generals want (12) ___________________.

Put a slash (/) where the spaces are

TheUSAwillspend$2billiononartificialintelligenceforweapons.Thisist
hemostithaseverspent.Itwantsthemostadvancedweaponsintheworl
d-betterthanChina'sandRussia's.TheUSAwantsweaponsthatwillno
tmakemistakes.Anofficialsaid:"Wethinkwecanacceleratetwodecade
sofprogressintofiveyears."Thenewweaponscouldmaketheirowndeci
sions,withoutanyhumanshelping.Thiscouldmeaninnocentpeoplebei
ngkilled.Theseweaponscanalreadychoosetargetsontheirown.Gener
alsdonotwanttolettheweaponsdecidewhichtargetstoattack.Thegene
ralswanttodothis.

Student survey

Write five GOOD questions about this topic in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper. When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.

(Please look at page 12 of the PDF to see a photocopiable example of this activity.)

Discussion — Write your own questions

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

(a) ________________

(b) ________________

(c) ________________

(d) ________________

(e) ________________

(f) ________________

(g) ________________

(h) ________________

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

(i) ________________

(j) ________________

(k) ________________

(l) ________________

(m) ________________

(n) ________________

(o) ________________

(p) ________________

Free writing

Write about this topic for 10 minutes. Comment on your partner’s paper.

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Answers

(Please check your answers against the article above.

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