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Ban killer robots to stop killing machine arms race warns Professor Stephen Hawking

A global arms race is inevitable if a military power tries to build artificially intelligent killer machines, says open letter from science and industry leaders

Killer robots must be banned, or the world risks a global arms race to build intelligent machines that can kill without human control, leading scientists including Professor Stephen Hawking have warned.

The celebrated physicist joined more than 1,000 other experts, researchers and business leaders in signing an open letter warning of the perils of artificially intelligent weapons.

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology mean so-called autonomous weapons which can find and kill their own targets are “feasible within years, not decades,” the letter warns.

“If any major military power pushes ahead with AI weapon development, a global arms race is virtually inevitable, and the end point of this technological trajectory is obvious: autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow,” they say.

The letter which is also signed by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and SpaceX entrepreneur Elon Musk calls for a pre-emptive ban on any weapons that could operate without human control.

The potential of such weapons is so profound that they have been described as the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms.

The letter concludes: “We believe that AI has great potential to benefit humanity in many ways, and that the goal of the field should be to do so.

“Starting a military AI arms race is a bad idea, and should be prevented by a ban on offensive autonomous weapons beyond meaningful human control.”