According to The Telegraph, two programs commissioned by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are trying to create killer robots
The robots, called LAWS – lethal autonomous weapons systems – are likely to be armed quadcopters of mini-tanks that can decided without human intervention who should live or die.
DARPA is currently working on two projects which could lead to killer bots. One is Fast Lightweight Autonomy (FLA) which is designing a tiny rotorcraft to manoeuvre unaided at high speed in urban areas and inside buildings. The other and Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment (CODE), is aiming to develop teams of autonomous aerial vehicles carrying out “all steps of a strike mission — find, fix, track, target, engage, assess” in situations in which enemy signal-jamming makes communication with a human commander impossible.
Stuart Russell, a Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkley, voiced his concern over the killer robots.
“In my view, the overriding concern should be the probable endpoint of this technological trajectory,” Russell said.
