Bring On the Killer Robots (STA BREAKING NEWS and ARCHIVES)

by Theresa , Monday, February 02, 2015, 05:24

Lethal autonomous weapons systems that can select and engage targets do not yet exist, but they are being developed. Are the ethical and legal problems that such "killer robots" pose so fraught that their development must be banned?

Human Rights Watch thinks so. In its 2012 report Losing Humanity: The Case Against Killer Robots, the activist group demanded that the nations of the world "prohibit the development, production, and use of fully autonomous weapons through an international legally binding instrument."

Similarly, the robotics and ethics specialists who founded the International Committee on Robot Arms Control want "a legally binding treaty to prohibit the development, testing, production and use of autonomous weapon systems in all circumstances."

Several international organizations have launched the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots to push for such a global ban, and a multilateral meeting under the Convention on Conventional Weapons was held in Geneva, Switzerland last year to debate the technical, ethical and legal implications of autonomous weapons. The group is scheduled to meet again in April 2015.

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