A future with ‘killer robots? Global treaty hopes dim as nations meet in Geneva
- Diplomats are meeting in Geneva to debate possible restrictions for fully autonomous weapons
- Dozens of countries want a ban similar to what was done for cluster munitions or landmines
The countries behind a United Nations agreement on weapons have been meeting this week on the thorny issue of lethal autonomous weapons systems, colloquially known as “killer robots”, which advocacy groups want to strictly limit or ban.
The latest conference of countries behind a Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) is tackling an array of issues from incendiary weapons, explosive remnants of war, a specific category of landmines, and the autonomous weapons systems.
Opponents of such systems fear a dystopian day when tanks, submarines, robots or fleets of drones with facial-recognition software could roam without human oversight and strike against human targets.
“It’s essentially a really critical opportunity for states to take steps to regulate and prohibit autonomy in weapons systems, which in essence means killer robots or weapons systems that are going to operate without meaningful human control,” said Clare Conboy, spokeswoman for the advocacy group Stop Killer Robots.
The various countries have met repeatedly on the issue since 2013. They face what Human Rights Watch called a pivotal decision this week in Geneva on whether to open specific talks on the use of autonomous weapons systems or to leave it up to regular meetings of the countries to work out.
A group of governmental experts that took up the issue failed to reach a consensus last week, and advocacy groups say nations including the United States, Russia, Israel, India and Britain have impeded progress.
The Geneva talks are scheduled to run through Friday.