Governments and companies are rapidly developing weapons systems with an increasing degree of autonomy and that make use of new technologies and artificial intelligence. These ‘killer robots’ can be used in conflict zones, by police forces and in border control. Machines must not be allowed to make decisions about life and death. Let’s act now to protect humanity and make the world a safer place.
We are experiencing the unthinkable: Drones and other advanced weapons are being developed with the ability to select and attack targets on their own – without human control. Once considered a movie theme, autonomous weapons, or ‘killer robots’, are no longer a problem of the future.
Machines are not capable of making complex ethical choices. They lack compassion and understanding, they make decisions based on biased, flawed and oppressive processes and data. Emerging technologies such as facial and voice recognition often fail to recognize women, people of color and people with disabilities. This means that autonomous weapons can never be properly programmed to replace human decision making.
Replacing troops with machines makes the decision to go to war easier – and if traded illegally or captured on the battlefield, such weapons will fall into the hands of others. Furthermore, these technologies could be used in policing, border control and to threaten human rights such as the right to protest, the right to life, and the prohibition of torture and other degrading treatment. Despite these concerns, countries such as the United States, China, Israel, South Korea, Russia, Australia and the United Kingdom continue to invest in autonomous weapons.
We have an opportunity to act now. Companies and defense departments around the world are racing to develop these technologies, we must act quickly before we lose significant human control over the use of force, which would have devastating consequences.
Sign this petition and stop killer robots from making decisions about life and death.
We call on government leaders around the world to initiate negotiations aimed at establishing a new instrument under international law to deal with autonomous weapons systems, in order to guarantee human control over the use of force and prohibit machines from having people. as targets, which would reduce us to mere objects, stereotypes and data.
This petition is promoted by the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, of which the CIPÓ is a member, and Amnesty International.
