United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for new rules on the use of autonomous weapons on Monday at a key meeting on the issue that opened in Geneva. Negotiators at the UN talks have spent eight years discussing limits on lethal autonomous weapons, or LAWS, which are fully machine-controlled and rely on new technology such as artificial intelligence and facial recognition. But pressure has increased in part due to a UN panel report in March that said the first autonomous drone strike may have already taken place in Libya.
“I encourage the Review Conference to agree on an ambitious plan going forward to impose restrictions on the use of certain types of autonomous weapons,” Guterres said at the start of the five-day talks. The Treaty on Certain Conventional Weapons has 125 parties, including the United States, China and Israel.
Some participating states, such as Austria, are calling for a total ban on LAWS, while others, including Washington, have been more cautious and have pointed to the potential benefits of such weapons, which can be more accurate than humans at hitting targets.
Amnesty International and civil society groups are calling on countries to start negotiating an international treaty and will submit a petition to negotiators later on Monday.
“The pace of technology is really starting to outpace the pace of diplomatic talks,” said Clare Conboy of Stop Killer Robots. “(This) is a historic opportunity for states to take steps to protect humanity from autonomy in the use of force.”
French ambassador for disarmament Yann Hwang, who chairs the talks, called for “important and crucial decisions” to be made this week. Diplomats say, however, that the body, which requires consensus, is unlikely to come to an agreement to launch an international treaty, under which Russia, among others, will oppose such a move.
“There is not enough support at this stage to launch a treaty, but we think some principles for national implementation can be agreed upon,” said a diplomat involved in the talks.
If no agreement can be reached, countries can move the discussions to another forum inside or outside the United Nations.
