Co-founder of Google also asked ban on autonomous weapons
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and other tech chiefs asked United Nations to ban killer Robots that could devastate mankind.
Elon Musk along with the co-founder of Google’s DeepMind – Mustafa Suleyman has joined more than 100 other tech experts who have signed a petition as United Nations talks on the subject are delayed.
The experts signing the letter say that autonomous weapons that kill without human intervention are “morally wrong,” and that their use should be controlled under the 1983 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW).
In their petition, the group states that the development of such technology would usher in a “third revolution in warfare,” that could equal the invention of gunpowder and nuclear weapons.
This UN agreement regulates the use of a number of types of weapons including land mines, fire bombs, and chemical weapons.
“Once developed, lethal autonomous weapons will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend,” the letter said.
“These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways,” the letter added.
The letter’s signatories urged the U.N. to “double their efforts” in coming up with a strategy to protect the world from killer robots at the new meeting.
A UN group focused on these types of weapons was set to meet on Monday, but it was cancelled and postponed until November, according to the international body’s website.
Autonomous weapons like tanks, drones and machine guns already being worked on across the world include a fixed-place sentry gun being developed by the South Korean government.
An unmanned combat aerial vehicle being developed in the UK by BAE Systems; robotic tanks being worked on in Russia and the US; and an autonomous warship that was launched in 2016 by the US.