While the technologies being explored under ‘pillar two’ of the AUKUS security pact are becoming clearer, New Zealand’s policy on autonomous weapons and military AI has become increasingly murky.
AI is going to fundamentally transform how nations wage far. By failing to address it, the defence review leaves Australia unprepared for the future of war.
It wouldn’t take much to turn this remotely operated mobile machine gun into an autonomous killer robot.
Pfc. Rhita Daniel, U.S. Marine Corps
The technology exists to build autonomous weapons. How well they would work and whether they could be adequately controlled are unknown. The Ukraine war has only turned up the pressure.
Ghost Robotics Vision 60 Q-UGV.
US Space Force photo by Senior Airman Samuel Becker
The sentient, murderous humanoid robot is a complete fiction, and may never become reality. But that doesn’t mean we’re safe from autonomous weapons – they are already here.
Sci-fi nightmares of a robot apocalypse aside, autonomous weapons are a very real threat to humanity. An expert on the weapons explains how the emerging arms race could be humanity’s last.
The term ‘killer robot’ often conjures images of Terminator-like humanoid robots. Militaries around the world are working on autonomous machines that are less scary looking but no less lethal.
John F. Williams/U.S. Navy
Sci-fi nightmares of a robot apocalypse aside, autonomous weapons are a very real threat to humanity. An expert on the weapons explains how the emerging arms race could be humanity’s last.
Both the hardware and software of commercial drones can be changed easily.
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
We already have some autonomous weapons – so talk of any ban should focus on where we draw the line on what is acceptable, and what is not. Can we at least agree on that?
Lecturer on Law and Associate Director of Armed Conflict and Civilian Protection, International Human Rights Clinic, Harvard Law School, Harvard University