Germany Joins The List Of Countries Pledging Not To Use Killer Robots

One of the major debates about the future of artificial intelligence is about autonomous weapons. Some of the countries have already started to distance themselves from the ethical dilemma and the controversial killer robots. In the recent meeting of the United Nations’ Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), world leaders considered the possibility to ban these killer robots.

This is the name that is given to these autonomous weapons and at the annual Munich Security Conference (MSC), Germany has made it clear that they are not interested in developing these autonomous weapon systems. “We have a very clear position. We have no intention of procuring […] autonomous systems,” said Lieutenant General Ludwig Leinhos, head of Germany’s new Cyber and Information Space Command, according to eNCA.

Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom had all opted out of the autonomous weapons development in 2017 and now Germany has joined their ranks. Mary Wareham, a coordinator for the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, told the panel at MSC that 22 nations already support the ban. Activists all around the globe are rallying against the development of such weapons. However, some countries like the United States are continuing to explore these weapons.

The world’s most prominent experts in Artificial Intelligence sent an open letter to the United Nations calling for a ban on these autonomous weapons. One of these experts is Stuart Russel who said that weaponizing artificial intelligence will do more harm than it will do good. Other similar groups are of the same view and have expressed the same concern.

The future of AI is so vast and must we all focus on how to weaponize it? It could open so many new doors for technological equipment. Nations should be working together to further this field rather than weaponizing it for use against each other. But, sadly the world we live in does not work like that and might is always right. So the race to create autonomous weapons continues.

You can watch the killer robots in the video below: