Campaigners against 'killer robots' Noel Sharkey (International Committee on Robot Arms Control), Jody Williams (Nobel Women’s Initiative) and Steve Goose (Human Rights Watch)—plus an unwelcome guest. Flickr / Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. Some rights reserved.
With states continuing to research and develop relevant weapons systems, international action is needed to prevent the emergence of fully autonomous weapons—systems which, once activated and their mission defined, could select people or objects to attack without any further human intervention.
Last week, 89 countries participated in a second informal meeting of experts on ‘lethal autonomous weapons systems’, within the framework of the United Nations’ Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). International organisations, NGOs and academics, including roboticists and ethicists, contributed. This issue has now been on the international agenda for two years, in part due to the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, which is calling for a treaty to ban fully autonomous weapons.
