UN, Red Cross heads warn autonomous weapons poised to cross ‘moral red line’, call for regulations
United Nations, Aug 25 (IANS) The Heads of the UN and the International Red Cross warned on Tuesday that autonomous weapons are poised to cross a “moral red line” and called for international laws to regulate them.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and International Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric sounded the alarm on the imminent danger from autonomous weapons, the robotic arms that can make targeting decisions on their own without human control or input.
“Autonomous weapon systems are not part of a distant future — a race towards greater autonomy in weapons systems is already well underway,” they said in a joint statement.
“We are now dangerously close to crossing a moral red line: the autonomous targeting of humans by machines,” they warned.
“A failure to act quickly and decisively will cost lives,” they said, demanding that “negotiations must begin now to urgently adopt a legally binding instrument to regulate autonomous weapon systems with clear prohibitions and restrictions”.
Their warning came a day after media reports that Russia had deployed autonomous drones against Ukraine and China was developing robot soldiers.
The New York Times reported that a drone navigating targeting with “an experimental artificial intelligence system, not a human pilot” killed three civilians in Zaporizhzhia last month, marking a dangerous milestone in robotic warfare.
And a Chinese engineer Yang Kunwith humanoid robot company ‘AG BOT’ told CBS News that the eventual goal was developing robot soldiers and it could happen in five to ten years.
The UN and Red Cross leaders noted, “Scientists and engineers developing these systems have themselves raised the alarm.”
“When the architects of this technology are calling for limits, States cannot afford to remain passive,” they said.
Guterres and Spoljaric recalled that three years ago, they asked countries to “establish specific prohibitions and restrictions on autonomous weapon systems”.
And now the world is on the brink of an existential threat from the robotic weapons, they said, underlining the need for regulations.
–IANS
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