RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 2 sourcesHuman rights groups worry that AI-driven systems cannot be adequately predicted or controlled.
Listen Summarise The UN and Red Cross warn that autonomous weapons capable of killing without human control could soon be used in conflicts, urging urgent negotiations for regulation. They call for a legally binding treaty with clear bans and limits on autonomous weapon systems, highlighting ongoing talks since 2014 and advancing technology. Human rights groups fear AI weapons may cause fatal errors and complicate war crime accountability; states must act decisively at the November Geneva conference. AI generated
GENEVA – The heads of the Red Cross and the United Nations on Aug 25 warned that autonomous weapons that can kill people without human involvement could soon be used in conflicts and called for urgent negotiations to restrict their use.
“We are now dangerously close to crossing a moral red line: the autonomous targeting of humans by machines,” said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and President of the International Committee of the Red Cross Mirjana Spoljaric in a joint statement.
“Negotiations must begin now to urgently adopt a legally binding instrument to regulate autonomous weapon systems with clear prohibitions and restrictions,” they said.
States are meeting in Geneva on potential new rules next week amid mounting concerns over the role of AI-assisted semi-autonomous weapons that have been used in conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza, and in Iran and the Gulf.
These discussions, ongoing since 2014, have made some progress but technology has also advanced.
Fully autonomous weapons are already in use by some armies, such as anti-missile systems on warships, but for now they are not known to be used against human targets.
Human rights groups also worry that AI-driven systems cannot be adequately predicted or controlled, raising the risk of fatal errors such as a failure to recognise an injured or surrendering soldier. And once such errors occur, it is harder to hold perpetrators to account in any future war crimes cases, they say.
“States must show political courage and move beyond incremental discussions towards decisive action”, the joint statement said, calling for those talks to begin in November when a major conference is planned in Geneva.
“Some decisions must forever remain with the human being, none more than the decision of taking or not a human life,” Carolyne Melanie Regimbal, chief of service at the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, told a Geneva press briefing after the joint statement’s release.
While states agree international humanitarian law applies to lethal autonomous weapons systems, specifically binding international standards for such systems remain virtually non-existent.
Russia and the US, among others, have opposed new legally binding instruments, arguing that existing laws are sufficient.
The Geneva talks, which require consensus to lead to formal negotiations, are taking place within a challenging context of geopolitical tensions and recent European withdrawals from the landmine ban treaty over Russian threats. REUTERS
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