Robots

We must prepare for the advent of killer robots

Representatives of UN member states, human rights groups and academia gathered at the Palace of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, last week for the third Informal Meeting of Experts regarding Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, otherwise known as artificially intelligent "killer robots".

The meeting, chaired for the second time by Ambassador Michael Biontino of Germany, was presented to participants as an opportunity to deepen the understanding and discussions on these weapons with a view toward examining whether their rise can be accommodated within the existing Geneva Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons of 1949 or calls for amendments. However, little real progress has been made toward defining the term "autonomous weapon system", let alone reaching consensus on any form of regulation.

Some delegations, including many of the world's undeveloped nations, have stated that machines tasked with making life and death decisions without any human intervention would be in breach of international humanitarian law, unethical and possibly even pose a risk to humanity itself.