An International Ban on Killer Robots is needed now

Noel Sharkey, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the University of Sheffield, has said an international ban must be put in place now, before one country starts using them in conflict, opening the door to others to follow suit.

Speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum in Copenhagen, Professor Sharkey noted that so far no nation has openly used entirely autonomous aircraft, submarines, surface vessels or tanks that are capable of tracking, selecting, targeting and deploying weapons entirely by themselves and based on algorithms. However,  such systems are already being developed by a number of countries, including the US, China, Israel, Taiwan and Russia. However,  because they have not yet been used, an opportunity is there to ban them before nations race to develop and start using them.

To read more: click here

Professor Sharkey was also interviewed about the Campaign to Ban Killer Robots on RTE: click here

Published by