Autonomous Weapon Systems: Dangerous Killer Robots or Smarter and Less-Harmful Warfare?, Geneva Academy Debate, Wedesday 20 November 11am – 1pm, Maison de la Paix (Chemin Eugène-Rigot 2), Geneva. The motion under debate will be: “Should there be an absolute ban on autonomous systems capable of using lethal force?” Two key speakers will argue for and…
“Published on 21 Nov 2013 – This video is of the inaugural debate in the TechDebates on Emerging Technologies series, which focused on Lethal Autonomous “Killer” Robots. LARs are machines that can decide to kill. Such technology has the potential to revolutionize modern warfare and more. The need for understanding LARs is essential to decide…
Over the last couple of months, lethal autonomous robots (LARs) went from a sidelined issue to not only a hotly and widely debated topic but most importantly an official item of United Nations (UN) arms control diplomacy. This post provides an overview over recent media coverage as well as events and statements given at the UN. The…
Naval Postgraduate School CRUSER Robo-Ethics Continuing Education Series (RECES) Robo-Ethics Panelist Debate (Part 3)
Today, ICRAC launches its new series of working papers. In ICRAC Working Paper #2 (#1 is to follow suit in the near future), Mark Gubrud and Juergen Altmann present “Compliance Measures for an Autonomous Weapons Convention”, inter alia containing a first conceptual sketch about how to implement technical verification measures to ensure human control and…
… To Ban Autonomous Lethal Robots Computing experts from 37 countries call for ban on killer robots Decision to apply violent force must not be delegated to machines! 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…
In their article “Killer drones: The ‘silver bullet’ of democratic warfare?“, recently published in Security Dialogue, ICRAC’s Niklas Schoernig and Frank Sauer examine some of the questions raised by democracies relying on unmanned systems. The abstract reads as follows: This article sets out to probe the peculiar nexus between democracy and the military use of…
On July 23 2012, the German public radio SWR2 ran a 45-minute discussion on Obama’s drone warfare with ICRAC’s Niklas Schoernig as one of the experts on air. More information for the German speaking visitors of our site, as provided by the SWR2 website: Hinrichtung per Mausklick – Sendung vom Montag, 23.7. | 17.05…
On June 2nd 2012, ICRAC is tagged in a lengthy article by The Economist, with a quote be ICRAC’s Juergen Altmann: Pressure will grow for armies to automate their robots if only so machines can shoot before being shot, says Jürgen Altmann of the Technical University of Dortmund, in Germany, and a founder of the…
A report released by US Central Command on 22 March 2012 – an excerpt of 5 pages can be found here – contains interesting and unsettling insights into the targeting practice of drone pilots, with one Captain supposed to act as a safety observer noting the “Top Gun” mentality of some drone pilots, and Predator…