Amnesty International Urges UN To Ban Autonomous ‘Killer Robots’

Amnesty International is calling for a ban on the development and use of lethal robots, ahead of a United Nations weapons convention in Geneva.

In an opinion piece written to coincide with the first day of the UN’s Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), Amnesty argues that autonomous weapons present a worrying challenge to humanitarian law and could provoke a dystopian arms race.

Concerns have previously been raised over the use of ‘killer robots’ or fully autonomous weapons that could kill without the need for a human command.

As the technology that could make these weapons possible moves closer to being a reality, critics are urging for bans on such weaponry.

Speaking to Buzzfeed, Amnesty arms control campaigner Rasha Abdul Rahim said: “They are only one step away from being autonomous and this is why people, and more importantly governments, need to start taking this issue seriously.”

While the use of autonomous weapons could potentially lower the risk of casualties in the armed forces, Abdul Rahim thinks that this could “potentially lower the threshold to go to war”.

While some critics are calling for a complete ban on killer robots, many think that strict regulation could also work, even arguing that there is a moral obligation to use such technology if if could save lives.

Similar concerns have been raised over driverless cars and how they could be programmed to kill to reduce casualties, possibly by taking one life to save others. However, with military hardware, the casualty count and ramifications could potentially be catastrophic.

Amnesty has been campaigning on the issue for some time and warns that lethal robots could also be used for law enforcement.

“The legal, ethical, and moral quandaries of using these systems in warfare are rightly beginning to receive the attention they deserve. But what’s still being widely overlooked is the likelihood that they will also be used in police operations, and it is urgent that this is addressed now,” said Abdul Rahim.

Image credit: Sky News