"Autonomous weapons" refers to military devices, such as drones or robots, that can carry out tasks and make decisions without human intervention. These weapons can operate on their own, using artificial intelligence to analyze and respond to their surroundings.
Full definition
Most agree that
fully autonomous weapons systems do not currently exist, but the capacity to develop them is expected to be available within the coming years rather than decades.
Most nations however agreed that the new work should focus on
lethal autonomous weapons systems and not remote - controlled aircraft or drones.
Therefore it is imperative to halt the development
of autonomous weapons systems before they gain disastrous momentum.
She urged adopting a broad approach at the outset, but described
autonomous weapons as a specific category of weapons in need of a specific response.
She is presently writing a monograph on the legal, moral and political issues associated
with autonomous weapons systems.
Public awareness and calls for more action to address
autonomous weapons concerns is needed now, not least to help stimulate the creation of policy.
The AI scientists claim the university is
developing autonomous weapons, or «killer robots,» whereas university officials say the goal of the research is to improve existing defense systems.
It looks at liability and law
for autonomous weapons and vehicles, machine ethics, and the privacy implications of AI systems.
According to the report, fully
autonomous weapons pose «far - reaching potential implications» to human rights, specifically the rights to life and dignity.
In the future, as
autonomous weapons technology advances, it may be compassion - free «killer robots» rather than people making these life - or - death decisions.
Future autonomous weapons might find and attack targets not only without the human present, but with no human in the decision - making loop at all.
The long - term consequences of
building autonomous weapons systems may well exceed the short - term tactical and strategic advantages they provide.
This 40 - pp publication details significant hurdles to assigning personal accountability for the actions of fully
autonomous weapons under both criminal and civil law.
The moral and ethical issues
surrounding autonomous weapons systems have been a topic of conversation at the national and international level from the start and this should continue.
The debate on lethal
autonomous weapons reaches far beyond legal and technical complexities, raising fundamental questions about the role of humans in taking lethal decisions in armed conflict.
Nearly all of the 90 countries participating in this debate have acknowledged the need to retain meaningful or necessary human control over the use of force
involving autonomous weapons.
By the
time autonomous weapons are ready for the battlefield the world will likely already have a great deal of experience living with free - thinking machines.
In an unfortunate incident earlier today, campaign representatives were told to leave an informal consultation held by the chair to discuss plans for addressing
autonomous weapons in 2016.
However, in a world where we only fight
with autonomous weapons systems, targeting our civilians would represent our enemy's only hope for success.
As the international debate over
autonomous weapons systems emerges the autonomous features in these systems are coming under scrutiny.
At the event, he called on the Irish government to show leadership on the crucial issue of ensuring human control over targeting and attack decisions by banning
fully autonomous weapons.
Last month, nations agreed to hold a third meeting on
autonomous weapons at the CCW on 11 - 16 April 2016, ahead of a milestone five - year Review Conference of the CCW at the end of the year.
The NDP recognizes that there are a variety of concerns
about autonomous weapons systems including «legal, practical and ethical questions.»
The AI research community is calling for the opposite — bold and decisive action to
prohibit autonomous weapons systems in order to support the development of AI that would benefit humanity.»
«I reaffirm once again that KAIST will not conduct any research activities counter to human dignity
including autonomous weapons lacking meaningful human control.»
Ecuador (9 October)
Lethal autonomous weapons raise humanitarian, moral, and legal concerns and should be preemptively banned.
More states have
raised autonomous weapons concerns at the UN General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament and International Security this year than in the past two years, according to a Campaign to Stop Killer Robots review of statements from the 2015 session, which concludes on 9 November.
«We therefore publicly declare that we will boycott all collaborations with any part of KAIST until such time as the President of KAIST provides assurances, which we have sought but not received, that the Center will not develop
autonomous weapons lacking meaningful human control.»
Lawand said that «uniquely human judgment» may be necessary for interpreting the rules of international humanitarian law and asked
if autonomous weapons systems could do that.
In a CBC Radio interview, Gariepy explained that ClearPath Robotics hopes its pledge will encourage other companies in Canada and around the world to take
autonomous weapons more seriously and follow their lead by speaking up and contributing to the emerging debate.
Campaign to Stop Killer Robots representatives are also speaking at other side events on legal, operational and technical, and ethical concerns over fully
autonomous weapons from 13:00 - 14:30 on 13 - 15 May in Conference Room XXII.
Several autonomous weapons systems with various degrees of human control are currently in use by high - tech militaries including CCW states the US, China, Israel, South Korea, Russia, and the UK.
This update of a November 2013 memo to CCW delegates suggests key areas for discussion and critical questions in efforts to address the concerns
regarding autonomous weapons systems.
Feb. 27: By a vote of 534 — 49, the European Parliament adopt its first resolution calling for a ban on «development, production and use of fully
autonomous weapons which enable strikes to be carried out without human intervention»
Phrases with «autonomous weapons»