EXPERTS MEET TO DISCUSS AND DEFINE ‘KILLER ROBOTS’

Government experts, advocacy groups and academics are kicking off a weeklong conference focusing on lethal autonomous weapons systems — colloquially known as “killer robots” — amid rising concerns that human decision-making could be stripped from military action. The Geneva meeting is the first by the group created last year under a treaty covering certain non-nuclear weapons, and aims to explore the technological, military, ethical and legal aspects of autonomous weapons systems. Bantan Nugroho of the treaty implementation unit says the meeting mainly aims to propel a discussion and set definitions for future weapons. “This is about machines that can target and kill humans without any human intervention.” Nugroho said Monday. “Theoretically, these weapons don’t exist yet.”