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At the international Convention on Conventional Weapons in Geneva, 123 participating nations voted to initiate official discussions on the danger of lethal autonomous weapons systems. That's the emerging designation for so-called "killer robots" — weapons controlled by artificial intelligence that can target and strike without human intervention
The agreement is the latest development in a growing movement calling for an preemptive ban on weaponized A.I. and deadly autonomous weapons. Last year, a coalition of more than 1,000 scientists and industry leaders, including Elon Musk and representatives of Google and Microsoft, signed an official letter to the United Nations demanding action.
The UN decision is significant in that it calls for formal discussions on the issue in 2017. In high-level international deliberations, the move from "informal" to "formal" represents a real step forward, said Stephen Goose, arms director of Human Rights Watch and a co-founder of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots.
"In essence, they decided to move from the talk shop phase to the action phase, where they are expected to produce a concrete outcome," Goose said in an email exchange with Seeker.
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