At the UN convention in Geneva on Disarmament, Japan’s ambassador, Nobushige Takamizawa says Japan has no plans of developing fully autonomous weapons systems also known as “killer robots”. Experts from around the globe are discussing on the future of “Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems,” (LAWS) and the humanitarian, ethical and security challenges posed at the weeklong meeting.
Being under regional security threats, particularly from North Korea, Japan had been anticipating Takamizawa’s comments, also because the country possesses the highly sophisticated technological know-how required to engage itself in the production of the so-called killer robots.
As Artificial Intelligence (A.I) grows more sophisticated, this technology can not only be used to analyze complex datasets or deployed in smart-home systems, but can potentially be used also in weaponry; which has sparked fear worldwide.
While autonomous weapons systems used for Warfare could serve benefits like saving labor and reducing collateral damage, experts in the field fear that robots capable of making strategic and quick decisions, could potentially replace humans in the future, even identifying and destroying targets with minimum human interaction.
With more than 20 countries already calling for a total ban on killer robots, the majority of states at the meeting emphasized the importance of retaining human control over weapons systems. Only this action seemingly would address ethical concerns regarding delegating the power to make life-and-death decisions to machines, or to leave the weapons to account for meaningful and effective human control to function fully.
Discussion of the use and development of “Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems” (LAWS), will remain to continue while international groups confer whether to put a complete ban on killer robots or to limit the technology in its operation.
