Killer Robots and the Automation of War

Event Date: 30th May 2020
Location: Webinar - Internet 2pm

Fully autonomous weapons decide who lives and dies without human intervention, crossing a new moral threshold of barbarism in war.

Machines lack human characteristics such as compassion that are necessary to make complex ethical choices. It would be a grave mistake to hand machines the power to make decisions about who, what and when to kill.

A number of countries including the UK are developing weapons systems with significant autonomy in the critical functions of selecting and attacking targets. If left unchecked the world could enter a destabilizing robotic arms race.

Join Peter Burt and Verity Coyle from the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots to discuss the latest developments and the campaign against this new type of weapon on Saturday 30 May at 2pm.

The discussion will be hosted by Kate Hudson, general secretary of CND, and Ian Chamberlain, CND’s outgoing press and communications officer.

Please do submit questions that you would like to be put to our guests.

Watch live on Facebook at facebook.com/CNDuk/live
Or watch on Zoom by registering online

Suggested reading and watching materials

AI Is making it easier to kill (you) (video) The New York Times
Ex-Google worker fears ‘killer robots’ could cause mass atrocities The Guardian
Off the Leash: How the UK is developing the technology to build armed autonomous drones Drone Wars UK blog