'Killer Robots': 10 Reasons Why Experts Want Ban
A group of scientists and tech experts wants the UN to back moves to ban weapons over which humans have no "meaningful control".
01:56 Monday 07 September 2015
ED 209 killed a human in the original Robocop movie. Pic: Orion Pictures
There have been calls for the United Nations to support a ban on autonomous weapons that select and engage targets without human intervention - also known as "killer robots".
Thousands of scientists and technology experts, including entrepreneur Elon Musk and physicist Stephen Hawking, signed a letter in July saying they needed to be outlawed.
The letter, issued by the Future of Life organisation, argued if any major military power pushed ahead with Artificial Intelligence weapon development, a global arms race was virtually inevitable.
And autonomous weapons would become the 'Kalashnikovs of tomorrow' it said, as they would be cheap to mass produce and end up in the hands of terrorists, dictators and warlords.
The International Committee for Robot Arms Control admits robots can make humans' lives better by doing mundane and dangerous tasks, increasing productivity and helping after natural disasters.
But it has given 10 reasons why Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS), over which humans have no "meaningful control", could "perilously impact global security".
1. Proliferation
Without a ban on the development, testing and production of LAWS, there is likely to be a proliferation of the arms and counter weapons.
2. Lowered threshold for armed conflicts
With LAWS, there could be fewer human troops on the ground in conflict zones and without them there could be more armed conflicts and civilian populations may suffer.
3. Continuous global battlefield
LAWS could be left behind - like landmines - to patrol post-conflict zones and may create a continuous global battlefield.
4. Unpredictability of interaction
LAWS and its software programmes will inevitably interact with competing hostile devices controlled by unknown software - with results impossible to predict.
5. Accelerating the pace of battle
New prototypes in unmanned systems are increasingly being tested at supersonic and hypersonic speeds which will mean even faster weapons and less chance for humans to have control.
6. Accidental conflict
Defence systems of one state could interact with equally fast LAWS from another state and this could trigger unintended armed conflicts before humans were able to react.
7. Militarisation of the civilian world
With autonomous targeting technology there could be violations of human and civil rights by police and private security forces with little possibility of accountability.
8. Automated oppression
While human soldiers can refuse to turn their weapons on their own people, LAWS will kill mercilessly due to their coded instructions.
9. Non-state actors
Crude copies of autonomous weapons could get into the hands of non-state armed organisations.
10. Cyber vulnerability
LAWS will be inherently insecure as there are risks of software coding errors and malfunctions - and so humans need to be in control of weapons systems.
