Autonomous weapons that kill without human decision-making represent a moral red line and a destabilizing military technology that must be banned by international law.
Overview
Weapons that autonomously decide to kill cross a fundamental ethical line and create unacceptable risks of escalation, proliferation, and civilian harm.
Classification
- Geographic concentration
- Global; UN CCW discussions; most development in US, China, Russia, Israel, UK, Turkey
- Tags
- security
- governance
- Scenario type (full)
- Dystopian / Governance scenario
- Human position
- Subordinated in conflict; human soldiers become supervisors of killing machines
- Time horizon
- Near term (0–5 years); already in early deployment