Arms Control Advocates Rally to Prevent Development of Killer Robots
The British aircraft manufacturer BAE Systems promotes its Taranis drone with a video that focuses on the dramatic: images of the swept-wing stealth aircraft flitting through the clouds, dramatic background music and thunder, men in chemical suits amid futuristic control rooms.
Its mission is multifaceted, the website claims: conducting sustained surveillance, marking targets, gathering intelligence, deterring adversaries and carrying out strikes in hostile territory.
And, the manufacturer notes, in large type: “Controlled by a human operator.” With a photo of the man who was at the controls as the stealth drone made its inaugural test flight.
In the world of high-tech robotics, the idea that a human operator would be considered a selling point seems anachronistic. But a growing movement of diplomats, arms control campaigners and international humanitarian law experts have begun pressing the United Nations to move now to ban what they fear is the next step in mankind’s pursuit of ways to destroy his fellow man: killer robots that can be programmed in advance to recognize a target, then pull the trigger on their own without any human intervention.
It wouldn’t take much, said Thomas Nash, director of the London-based advocacy group Article 36, to turn the next generation of Taranis aircraft into autonomous killers with the addition of some software. (Read more from “Arms Control Advocates Rally to Prevent Development of Killer Robots” HERE)
Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.
