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| A robot is pictured as activists from the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations opposing lethal autonomous weapons or so-called "killer robots," stage a protest at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, March, 21, 2019. Reuters-Yonhap |
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The latest conference of countries behind a Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) is tackling an array of issues from incendiary weapons, explosive remnants of war, a specific category of landmines, and the autonomous weapons systems.
Opponents of such systems fear a dystopian day when tanks, submarines, robots or fleets of drones with facial-recognition software could roam without human oversight and strike against human targets.
"It's essentially a really critical opportunity for states to take steps to regulate and prohibit autonomy in weapons systems, which in essence means killer robots or weapons systems that are going to operate without meaningful human control," said Clare Conboy, spokeswoman for the advocacy group Stop Killer Robots.
The various countries have met repeatedly on the issue since 2013. They face what Human Rights Watch called a pivotal decision this week in Geneva on whether to open specific talks on the use of autonomous weapons systems or to leave it up to regular meetings of the countries to work out.
A group of governmental experts that took up the issue failed to reach a consensus last week, and advocacy groups say nations including the United States, Russia, Israel, India and Britain have impeded progress.
The Geneva talks are scheduled to run through Friday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross cautioned this month that the "loss of human control and judgment in the use of force and weapons raises serious concerns from humanitarian, legal and ethical perspectives."
Dozens of countries want a ban on weapons that are not decisively controlled by humans. Pressure to put limits on lethal autonomous weapons increased in part due to a U.N. panel report in March that said the first autonomous drone attack may have already occurred in Libya.
But some world powers oppose any binding or non-voluntary constraints on the development of such systems, in part out of concern that if the countries can't develop or research such weapons, their enemies or non-state groups might.
Some countries argue there's a fine line between autonomous weapons systems and computer-aided targeting and weapons systems that exist already.
The CCW has 125 parties including the United States and China, which has shown great interest in emerging military technologies, including artificial intelligence.
The U.S. has called for a "code of conduct" governing the use of such systems, while Russia has argued that current international law is sufficient. The new German government has vowed to pursue binding international rules that would outlaw such weapons.
China's arms control envoy has called for international rules to be imposed on the use of AI in the military to prevent an international arms race and the risk of human disaster.
China's arms control ambassador to the United Nations, Li Song, made a statement on Monday in presenting China's position paper on regulating military AI applications.
"Countries, especially great powers, should exercise restraint in developing AI weapon systems," Li said. "China opposes the use of AI technologies to seek absolute military superiority and to undermine the sovereignty and territorial security of other countries."
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a statement delivered on his behalf at Monday's meeting, urged the conference on CCW to "swiftly advance its work on autonomous weapons that can choose targets and kill people without human interference."
He called for an agreement "on an ambitious plan for the future to establish restrictions on the use of certain types of autonomous weapons."
France's Disarmament Ambassador Yann Hwang, who is president of the talks, called for "key and vital decisions" to be taken.
"There is not enough support to launch a treaty at this stage but we think some principles could be agreed for national implementation," said a diplomat involved in the talks.
The issue is likely to remain with the group of governmental experts and not be elevated to special talks ― with a view toward other U.N. agreements that restrict cluster munitions and landmines.
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