A robotics expert, a physicist, a bioethicist and a philosopher have founded the International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC) to campaign for limits on robotic military hardware.
Roboticist Noel Sharkey at the University of Sheffield, UK, and his colleagues set up ICRAC after a two-day meeting in Sheffield earlier this month. Sharkey has spoken before of ethical concerns about military systems that make their own decisions.
“Robot weapons are likely to change the character of warfare,” Sharkey told New Scientist. “We seem to be rushing headlong into the development of autonomous weapons systems without any real concern for the long-term impact on civilian populations.”
