The adoption of new international laws that could govern the use of "killerrobots" or outright forbid them was encouraged by diplomats on Tuesday, considering the technology could become a reality someday.
The limits and responsibilities of so-called lethal autonomous weapons systems that could exceed the creation of human-directed drones was being attempted to be defined by representatives at the first United Nations meeting devoted to the subject, the Associated Press reported.
Delegates were urged to take "bold action" by adopting pre-emptive new laws to ensure there is always a person directing the weapons, Michael Moeller, acting head of the U.N.'s European headquarters in Geneva, said at the four-day gathering.
"All too often international law only responds to atrocities and suffering once it has happened," said Moeller, a Danish diplomat. "You have the opportunity to take pre-emptive action and ensure that the ultimate decision to end life remains firmly under human control."
Future weapons, which could eventually aim targets without any human intervention, wouldn't come under the authority of existing laws, delegates from many of the nations stated.
"It is indispensable to maintain control of the decision to kill another person," German Ambassador Michael Biontino told the meeting.
According to the AP, Brazil's Ambassador Pedro Motto Pinto Coelho said the automation of the battlefield seems inevitable, but it isn't a new phenomenon.
"The fascination produced by technology shall not prevent us from raising relevant questions about the convenience and consequences of our future choices," Pinto Coelho said.
However, delegates at the meeting were cautioned against trying to "pre-judge" the uses of emerging technologies by U.S. diplomat and legal adviser Stephen Townley.
Rather than consider popular culture images of "a humanoid machine independently selecting targets," he urged decision-makers to focus on actual ways weapons will likely develop.
Diplomats agreed that it wasn't too early to consider the legal, moral and ethical dimensions even if the technology was currently non-existent.
