On 13 March, Swiss parliamentarian Beat Flach of the Green Liberal Party introduced Motion 17.3195 calling on the Federal Council to support «an international prohibition of autonomous
robotic weapon systems.»
Jun. 11: Kill Decision author Daniel Suarez calls for an international treaty to ban
autonomous robotic weapons in his TED talk in Edinburgh.
A gigantic
robotic weapon of mass destruction, the Twisted Marionette can only be stopped by a concerted effort on the part of players.
We can then go on to a more exacting discussion as to the situations in
which robotic weapons are indeed an extension of human will and when their actions are beyond direct human control.
And more directly mecha related, I was happy to see in the new Warhammer 40,000 MMO trailer some of the
massive robotic weapons the Warhammer 40k universe has to offer.
The gameplay demo was situated in a particularly brown battlefield full of mobile,
robotic weapons platforms (think turrets on a moving tripod).
According to the survey's report, «results indicate that our survey participants are reluctant to endorse the development and use of LAWS... and suggest that more international public engagement is necessary to support democratic decisions about what is appropriate when developing and
using robotic weapons technologies.»
Latiff and McCloskey reflect on ethical, moral and other considerations of weapons with ever - increasing autonomy, noting «The problem is that
robotic weapons eventually will make kill decisions on the battlefield with no more than a veneer of human control.
This 22 - page report examines ethical, legal, policy, technical, and other concerns
with robotic weapon systems that, once activated, can select and engage targets without further intervention by a human operator.
Apr: In an article for the International Journal of Intelligence Ethics, Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams calls for a ban on «fully autonomous attack and
kill robotic weapons.»
In its statement during the NGO session — its first ever statement in a multilateral fora — the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots welcomed the UN Special Rapporteur and urged all to states endorse and implement its recommendations, including the call for an immediate moratorium
on robotics weapons systems that, once activated, can select and engage targets without further intervention by a human.
Wareham reviews the first - ever UN report on lethal
autonomous robotic weapons and describes its presentation to the Human Rights Council in a debate where two dozen countries spoke.
It capped off what has been a remarkable year for this international coalition of non-governmental organizations, which can claim much of the credit for drawing attention to the relentless move toward full autonomy in lethal
robotic weapons systems which, unchallenged, would forever change the way wars are fought.
Created by Dr. Alexander Leveringhaus, who specializes in moral responsibility and
robotic weapons, this initiative analyses how militaries can design ethically responsible combat systems using increasingly sophisticated and potentially autonomous technology.
The implicit assumption in your article is that
robotic weapons would be deployed against human combatants.
Amnesty International has expressed concern that fully autonomous weapons, including «less lethal»
robotic weapons that can result in deaths and serious injuries, would result in unlawful killings and injuries both in situations of armed conflict as well as in law enforcement operations.
These robotic weapons would be able to choose and fire on targets on their own, without any human intervention.
On 30 May 2013 in Geneva, nations for the first time ever debated what to do about fully autonomous weapons at the United Nations Human Rights Council following the presentation of the report on «lethal autonomous
robotic weapons» by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, -LSB-...]
In a press release, Afri described the launch as timely given the context of moves by some countries towards the use of lethal autonomous
robotic weapons.
The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots believes that
robotic weapons systems should not be making life and death decisions on the battlefield.