Next week nation states from around the world will meet at the United Nations in Geneva to discuss the problems raised by Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS): weapons that once activated will select targets and attack them with violent force without the benefits of human control. The Convention of Certain Conventional Weapons will host this…
UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon “energized” by students’ “serious discussions” on autonomous weapons systems In less than two weeks, diplomats from around the world will gather at the United Nations in Geneva to discuss potential global regulations on “lethal autonomous weapons systems” that would be able to select and attack targets without direct human control. But…
Ten year old Bethany Clifford-Tait is concerned about a future that includes autonomous weapons systems aka ‘killer robots’. Such were her worries that she wrote to the producers of the oldest and most popular BBC children’s programme Blue Peter to ask them to spread the word to other children across the country in one of…
ICRAC welcomes the decision by the 2014 UN CCW High Contracting Parties Meeting to keep discussing “lethal autonomous weapon systems” (LAWS). From the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots Website: The decision is an important acknowledgement of the legal, technical, ethical, operational, and societal concerns that have been raised. The broad consensus expressed for continuing the talks shows…
On November 13, ICRAC’s Noel Sharkey delivered the following statement to the Meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the CCW, gathered to discuss questions related to “lethal autonomous weapons systems” from November 13 to November 14 2014 at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. I am speaking on behalf of the International Committee for…
On Monday, October 20th, The School of Media Studies at The New School hosted a discussion chaired by ICRAC’s Dr. Peter Asaro with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Ms. Jody Williams and Mary Wareham of Human Rights Watch, looking at the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, the involvement of ICRAC and many other NGOs worldwide and…
Hi-Tech Canadian Robotics company, Clearpath, today issued a statement pledging not to manufacture autonomous weapons systems despite their commercial advantage and they urged other companies to follow suit: “those who might see business opportunities in this technology to seek other ways to apply their skills and resources for the betterment of humankind.” ICRAC applauds the…
After having fulfilled ICRAC’s founding mission declared in September 2009, ICRAC members have updated their mission statement in July 2014. The new, 2014 Mission Statement reads as follows: Declared July 2014, updating the Original Mission Statement in light of ICRAC’s 2009 call to commence a discussion about robot arms control having been heard. Given the…
Following on from the recent CCW informal meeting of experts at the UN in Geneva there has been considerable outcry about the total absence of women being invited to participate as experts. Nobel Peace Laureat Jody Williams led the charge at the meeting by pointing out the large number of relevant female experts that she…
ICRAC is pleased to announce that it has fulfilled the first part of its founding mission statement declared in September 2009 at Sheffield by founding members Juergen Altmann, Peter Asaro, Noel Sharkey and Rob Sparrow. Given the rapid pace of development of military robotics and the pressing dangers that these pose to peace and international…