UN to host talks on ‘killer robots’

Discussion will focus on pros and cons of autonomous weapons

GENEVA: The United Nations is set to host the first-ever talks on the use of autonomous weapons, but those hoping for a ban on the machines dubbed killer robots will be disappointed, the ambassador leading the discussions said.

More than 100 artificial intelligence entrepreneurs led by Tesla’s Elon Musk in August urged the UN to enforce a global ban on fully-automated weapons, echoing calls from activists who have warned that the machines will put civilians at enormous risk.

A UN disarmament grouping known as the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) will hold five days of talks on the issue in Geneva starting tomorrow.

But anything resembling a ban or even a treaty remains far off, said the Indian ambassador on disarmament, Amandeep Gill, who is chairing the meeting.

“It would be very easy to just legislate a ban but I think ... rushing ahead in a very complex subject is not wise,” he said on Friday. “We are just at the starting line.” He said the discussion, which would also include civil society and technology companies, would be partly focused on understanding the types of weapons in the pipeline.

Proponents of a ban, including the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots pressure group, insist that human beings must ultimately be responsible for the final decision to kill or destroy.

They argue that any weapons system that delegates the decision on an individual strike to an algorithm is by definition illegal as computers cannot be held accountable under international humanitarian law.

Gill said there was agreement that “human beings have to remain responsible for decisions that involve life and death”.

But, he added, there are varying opinions on the mechanics through which “human control” must govern deadly weapons.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is mandated to safeguard the laws of conflict, has not called for a ban, but has underscored the need to place limits on autonomous weapons.

“Our bottom line is that machines can’t apply the law and you can’t transfer responsibility for legal decisions to machines,” Neil Davison of the ICRC’s arms unit said.

He highlighted the problematic nature of weapons that involve major variables in terms of the timing or location of an attack – for example, something that is deployed for multiple hours and programmed to strike whenever it detects an enemy target.

“Where you have a degree of unpredictability or uncertainty in what’s going to happen when you activate this weapons system, then you are going to start to have problems for legal compliance,” he said.

Next week’s UN meeting will also feature wide-ranging talks on artificial intelligence, triggering criticism that the CCW was drowning itself in discussions about new technologies instead of zeroing in on the urgent issue.

You can’t transfer responsibility for legal decisions to machines.

Neil Davison