António Guterres
Imagine the consequences of an autonomous system that could, by itself, target and attack human beings. I call upon States to ban these weapons, which are politically unacceptable and morally repugnant.
Jody Williams
We reject the notion that killer robots are inevitable. They are only inevitable if those in this room and countless others around the world who oppose lethal weapons without meaningful human control are willing to roll over and allow the not necessarily inevitable to become a deadly and terrifying reality.
Nobel Peace Laureates have endorsed the call to ban killer robots through a 2014 open letter calling for a ban on killer robots and/or signing on to joint declarations issued by the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, most recently in Mérida on 22 September 2019.
“We, the undersigned Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, applaud this new global effort and whole-heartedly embrace its goal of a preemptive ban on fully autonomous weapons that would be able to select and attack targets on their own. It is unconscionable that human beings are expanding research and development of lethal machines that would be able to kill people without human intervention.”
“Now, it is time to take a stand against fully autonomous weapons. Therefore, we, as religious leaders, faith groups and faith-based organizations, raise our collective voice to call on all governments to participate in the international debate on the issue, and to work towards a ban on the development, production and use of fully autonomous weapons.”
Scientists around the world are speaking up about the dangers of fully autonomous weapons and the need for a ban. A series of open letters outline their concerns.
“Just as most chemists and biologists have no interest in building chemical or biological weapons, most AI researchers have no interest in building AI weapons — and do not want others to tarnish their field by doing so, potentially creating a major public backlash against AI that curtails its future societal benefits.”
Algeria
Argentina
Austria
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Djibouti
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Ghana
Guatemala
Holy See
Iraq
Jordan
Mexico
Morocco
Namibia
Nicaragua
Pakistan
Panama
Peru
State of Palestine
Uganda
Venezuela
Zimbabwe