UN Targets Terminator-Style 'Killer Robots'

Diplomats are advocating for the adoption of new international laws that could govern or prohibit the use of killer robots if technological advances allowed their creation to become a reality.

Representatives at the first United Nations meeting devoted to the subject are attempting to define the limits and responsibilities of 'lethal autonomous weapons systems' that could go beyond human-directed drones already being used by some armies, writes ABC News.

"All too often international law only responds to atrocities and suffering once it has happened," Michael Moeller, acting head of the U.N.'s European headquarters in Geneva, told diplomats at the start of the four-day gathering.

"You have the opportunity to take pre-emptive action and ensure that the ultimate decision to end life remains firmly under human control."

He noted that the U.N. treaty they were meeting to discuss - the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons adopted by 117 nations including the world's major powers - was used before to prohibit the use of blinding laser weapons in the 1990s before they were ever deployed on the battlefield, writes ABC News. 

According to Moeller, this "serves as an example to be followed again," writes ABC News.

His proposal reiterates campaigns by groups including the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots and Human Rights Watch, which want an international ban enacted before Terminator-style robots can ever be activated. 

Different delegates acknowledged that existing laws would not cover future weapons that could autonomously decide on targets - without human involvement. 

"It is indispensable to maintain human control over the decision to kill another human being," German Ambassador Michael Biontino told the meeting.

"This principle of human control is the foundation of the entire international humanitarian law."

However, U.S. diplomat and legal adviser Stephen Townley advised the meeting against 'pre-judging' the uses of emerging technologies.

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, writes ABC News.

While the technologies do not yet exist for these robots to become a reality, diplomats have agreed that it is worthwhile to ponder the legal, moral and ethical ramifications of the possibility. 

"The fascination produced by technology shall not prevent us from raising relevant questions about the convenience and consequences of our future choices," Brazil's Ambassador Pedro Motto Pinto Coelho said at the meeting.