Should killer robots be a human rights issue?S


One U.N. representative believes they do. Christof Heyns is the U.N. Special Rapporteur who deals with extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. Last week, he issued a special report on LARs, urging nations to step back and think about the implications of these devices before deploying them widely. He's worried about removing human ethics from the practice of war, and that these robots might become killing machines with no sense of justice.

He's not referring to Terminators just yet, but instead weapons like Samsung's automatic machine gun, the SGR-A1, which guards the border between North and South Korea. It will fire automatically on people who approach and don't know the proper password.

According to a release from the UN:




Of course, ethics are one issue. But malfunctions are just as serious. There have already been accidents with robots like the SGR-A1 malfunctioning and shooting off friendly fire. Similar robots used in industrial production have also gotten buggy and severely maimed factory workers.

What will human rights look like in an age of killer robots who kill without any human giving the order? Obviously, as Heyns indicates, we'll have to change the way we understand things like "summary execution." But we'll also have to rethink our laws. After all, who is responsible when an autonomous robot accidentally kills a soldier fighting alongside it? It seems as if we should figure this question out before we start the next robot war.