These days, the concept of a killer robot is typically only found in our media—the murderous Terminator going on a vengeance spree, or the humanoid Cylons that always have a plan. With our ever-evolving technology, however, a real future that resembles something out of science-fiction may not be that far off—and there’s a group that is really concerned about us making any progress in the field of killer robots.
The group is called the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, formed by several NGOs (non-governmental organizations) who are actively working to ban autonomous weapons systems—basically, technology that is capable of inflicting dangerous or deadly harm without the need for human direction. On Tuesday, the group met at the United Nations to call out global militaries in an attempt to get them to preemptively agree to ban these systems across the board.
Why a ban and not just a regulation of these “killer robots”? Well, the belief is that those militaries that are already in possession of the technology might still be tempted to use it.
Stephen Hawking and Steve Wozniak were among those who contributed to an open letter in favor of banning for fear that it could also lead to the tech winding up on the black market, available to the highest bidder.
Right now, most militaries aren’t in possession of fully autonomous systems—but they’re getting pretty close to it. The United Nation’s Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons is scheduled to vote on the issue in November, but the campaign team is concerned that there’s not enough movement on the issue.
And I could live without the threat of a killer drone in my lifetime, thanks.
(via Rawstory, image via Warner Bros. Pictures)
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