“Once developed, [autonomous weapons] will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend,” write the signatories. “These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways.”
The letter is signed by the founders of 116 AI and robotics companies from 26 countries, and was published this weekend ahead of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI). This was intended to coincide with the beginning of formal talks by the UN exploring such a ban. 123 member nations agreed to the talks which were triggered in part by the publication of a similar petition in 2015 but discussions have been delayed due to unpaid fees from member states.
The experts signing the letter say that autonomous weapons that kill without human intervention are “morally wrong,” and that their use should be controlled under the 1983 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). This UN agreement regulates the use of a number of types of weapons including land mines, fire bombs, and chemical weapons.
A number of nations are currently developing lethal autonomous weapons, including the US, China, Russia, and Israel. Some systems have already been deployed, like autonomous border turrets built by South Korean arms manufacturer Dodaam Systems. The turrets are equipped with machine guns and are technically capable of identifying and firing on targets without human intervention, although currently human operators have to authorize any lethal shots.
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