Autonomous weapons systems, or killer robots, are weapons that once activated, can select and attack a target without human intervention; mere machines holding the power to decide over the life and death of their possible targets. Watch this short movie by the Dutch peace organisation PAX and learn why the risks of developing – and […]

As a member of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, AOAV welcomes the historic decision taken by nations to begin international discussions on how to address the challenges posed by autonomous weapons systems. In a landmark move, the United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), meeting in Geneva, agreed to hold discussions on killer robots in […]

Member States to the Convention of Conventional Weapons will decide tomorrow whether to consider autonomous weapons systems, or killer robots, under the current treaty. Ahead of what could be a landmark decision towards a moratorium against the development of these weapons, Professor Noel Sharkey, chair of ICRAC and founding member of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, discusses […]

At next week’s annual meeting of States Parties to the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), governments will discuss whether autonomous weapon systems, or killer robots, should be considered under the current treaty. The CCW was introduced in 1980 and was designed to prohibit or restrict weapons of concern, such as landmines, incendiary weapons or blinding […]

The 2013 session of the United Nations General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament and International Security has seen a number of states speak for the first time about fully autonomous weapons, with many urging international talks. The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots addressed the First Committee for the first time on Tuesday, 29 October, calling on states […]

All nations should agree to begin international talks aimed at preventing the creation of fully autonomous robot weapons that, once activated, would select and engage targets without human intervention, said the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots today at an event at the United Nations in New York. “Governments should never relinquish human control of targeting […]

More than 270 engineers, computing and artificial intelligence experts, roboticists, and professionals from related disciplines are calling for a ban on the development and deployment of weapon systems that make the decision to apply violent force autonomously, without any human control. In a statement issued today, the experts from 37 countries say that, “given the […]

In September 2013, PRIO and the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies hosted the breakfast seminar “Killer Robots: the Future of War?”. The goal of the seminar was to contribute to the public debate on autonomous weapons, and identify key ethical and legal concerns relating to robotic weapon platforms. The event was chaired by Kristin B. […]

Interest in tackling fully autonomous weapons is growing in Norway with events in Oslo on 4 September, where campaigners outlined civil society concerns and called on the government and opposition parties to articulate their policy on banning the weapons. More than 50 people attended a breakfast seminar on killer robots (drapsroboter in Norwegian) convened by the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian […]

“Once the genie is out of the bottle, it’s very, very hard to put it back in again.” In the following short documentary, robotics expert Noel Sharkey and members of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC) explain why it is so important to ban autonomous weapons before they become broadly deployed.

  Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) is happy to announce that we have joined the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, an international coalition of non-governmental organisations that calls for a preemptive and comprehensive ban on fully autonomous weapons. We believe that this prohibition should be achieved through an international treaty, as well as through national laws […]

A new type of arms race is underway and its outcome will shape the future of our planet. This race is not one between two countries. It is between the “tortoise”; of our slowly changing legal and institutional norms and the “hare” of rapid technological change in the arms industry. The case of lethal autonomous […]