Say no to killer robots

UK roboticist Prof Noel Sharkey calls for a pre-emptive ban on the deployment of autonomous weapons. In this article, he writes, “This is a call to engineers to stand up and demand the prohibition of autonomous lethal targeting by robots. I ask this of engineers because you are the ones who know just how limited machines can be when it comes to making judgments; judgments that only humans should make; judgments about who to kill and when to kill them.”

Sharkey introduces the International Campaign for Robotic Arms Control’s “Scientists’ Call” for a “ban on the development and deployment of weapon systems in which the decision to apply violent force is made autonomously.” The full text of the call, which is aimed at “Computer Scientists, Engineers, Artificial Intelligence experts, Roboticists and professionals from related disciplines” is available here.

The original article can be found here.