UN Summit Seeks To Stop ‘Killer Robots’ With New Accord

Diplomats and experts are gathering in Geneva this week with a new sense of urgency on a topic few would have forecasted at the start of their diplomatic careers: killer robots.With autonomous drones powered by artificial intelligence growing in capability and frequency of use, the United Nations wants to establish rules — before it’s too late.“We are now dangerously close to crossing a moral red line: the autonomous targeting of humans by machines,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a joint statement with the president of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent.In the last few years, lethal autonomous weapons have made the leap from the pages of science fiction to the battlefield. Weapons powered by artificial intelligence are already being used in the skies of Ukraine, in Gaza and in Sudan. More advanced and deadly drones are on the drawing board.The highest concern for diplomats are weapons that can select their own targets and decide to kill — independently, without human involvement.Laurent Gisel, the head of the arms and conduct of hostilities division at the Red Cross and Red Crescent, told reporters there is no “confirmed evidence” that anyone has been killed by an autonomously operating weapon.But reports have indicated that a Russian drone that killed three people outside a gas station in southeastern Ukraine in July autonomously targeted its victims. That drone had pretrained target packages in its system and did not have an antenna that would allow an operator to change its trajectory. The drone was programmed by its operator to fly to the gas station, however.Ukrainian officials claimed in an interview with the New Scientist they had fielded a fully autonomous killer drone in 2024 that killed several Russian soldiers. That drone platform was built as a test and was only used once, the Ukrainians said.With their joint statement,the Secretary-General and ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric are trying to inject a sense of urgency into slow-moving discussions that have been underway for more than a decade.“This year must mark a turning point,” Mr. Guterres and Ms. Spoljaric said.The speed at which autonomous weapons are being developed, improved and used has not been matched by the plodding progress of international diplomacy.Talks have occurred off and on since 2014, and during that time the diplomats have only been able to adopt 11 guiding principles. In 2017, members of over 100 robotics companies wrote an open letter to the UN calling for an outright ban on killer robots. Though the ICRC is not calling for a full ban, it says weapons that independently target people should be restricted.In addition to the moral quandary of a machine deciding whether a person lives or dies, there are concerns that autonomous weapons may be less able to distinguish between innocent civilians and legitimate military targets. And if something goes wrong, there is no person to hold accountable like there is when the chain of command is made of human beings.“Meaningful human control is key and now a minority of states want to water that progress down at the last minute,” members of the group Stop Killer Robots said in a social media video. “It’s essential that this doesn’t happen.”The negotiation process has hit a myriad of roadblocks and is still far away from fashioning a treaty.Countries including the US and UK have argued a new treaty or accord is unnecessary, because the use of autonomous weapons is already covered by international humanitarian law. The UK submitted a proposal for a manual that would clarify how humanitarian law applies to autonomous weapons.In 2022, days after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian diplomats complained their experts were unable to attend meetings due to travel restrictions. That put the Russian side in an unfair position, they complained. The Brazilian diplomat chairing the gathering decided to switch those talks to an informal format.“Technological developments are not waiting for the diplomatic calendar,” said Carolyne Melanie Regimbal, who heads the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs. “The widening gap between technological capacity and capability and regulatory restraint is increasingly evident.”This week’s meeting is meant to firm up details and proposals ahead of a larger conference in November. The review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, the seventh of which takes place in November, only occurs every five years, Regimbal said. Only after that conference, if all goes well, can the now 12 year old process move towards drafting a treaty.“Continuing to design weapon systems that make it easier to wage war will only undermine our collective efforts towards a more peaceful world,” Mr. Guterres and Ms. Spoljaric said in their statement. “The path is clear. The need is urgent. Innovation must serve humanity – not endanger it.”

UN Summit Seeks To Stop ‘Killer Robots’ With New Accord

UN Summit Seeks To Stop ‘Killer Robots’ With New Accord

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