Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk has joined dozens of CEOs of artificial intelligence companies in signing an open letter urging the United Nations to ban the use of AI in weapons before the technology gets out of hand. The letter was published Monday -- the same day the U.N.'s Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems was due to meet to discuss ways to protect civilians from the misuse of automated weapons. That meeting, however, has been postponed until November. "Lethal autonomous weapons threaten to become the third revolution in warfare," read the letter, which was also signed by the chief executives of companies such as Cafe X Technologies (which built the autonomous barista) and PlusOne Robotics (whose robots automate manual labor). "Once this Pandora's box is opened, it will be hard to close. Therefore we implore the High Contracting Parties to find a way to protect us all from these dangers."

Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast has been scorched by fighting between the state and members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Once developed, [lethal autonomous weapons] will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend,

If a distant comet is on course to collide with Earth, scientists will be able to detect it only about a year in advance. That doesn't leave much time to prepare. Artificial intelligence researchers believe they have the key to providing astronomers more foresight: machine learning algorithms that can more quickly identify and cluster the debris that comets leave in their wake. By speeding up analysis of meteor showers, researchers hope to pinpoint the orbits of distant, but potentially dangerous, comets. This project is one of five being explored as part of an artificial intelligence pilot research program sponsored by NASA.

The UN has received a stark warning from the Future of Life Institute, in an open letter that was signed by more than 100 leaders in the AI industry. Technological advances in the artificial intelligence (AI) field are developing at a rapid rate, and, while AI is being used in innovative and helpful ways, there are just as many dangers and ethical quandaries to consider. In an open letter published today (August 21), a group of AI specialists and experts from 26 countries implored the United Nations (UN) to ban the development and use of autonomous weapons. The signatories called for autonomous weapons systems to be included in the banned weapons list, under the UN's Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which was enforced in 1983. 'We do not have long to act.

Leaders in the fields of AI and robotics, including Elon Musk and Google DeepMind's Mustafa Suleyman, have signed a letter calling on the United Nations to ban lethal autonomous weapons, otherwise known as "killer robots." In their petition, the group states that the development of such technology would usher in a "third revolution in warfare," that could equal the invention of gunpowder and nuclear weapons. "Once developed, [autonomous weapons] will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend," write the signatories. "These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways." The letter is signed by the founders of 116 AI and robotics companies from 26 countries, and was published this weekend ahead of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI).

In a recent open letter, Tesla's Elon Musk and others called for a ban on autonomous weapons, saying "Lethal autonomous weapons threaten to become the third revolution in warfare. Once developed, they will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend. These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways. We do not have long to act. Once this Pandora's box is opened, it will be hard to close."

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Hezbollah used drones to strike Islamic State in Syria close to the border with Lebanon, a military media unit it runs said on Monday, their first public declaration that they had used such a weapon.

Elon Musk has signed his name alongside more than 100 others to ask the UN to regulate the use of autonomous weapons systems. The group of concerned engineers, many of whom are respected in the field of AI, is asking the global body to "protect civilians" from "misuse" of AI-driven weapons. They believe that smart, self-guided kill bots would become the tool of choice for despots and tyrants. Musk is, by far, the most famous signatory on the letter, but there are plenty of other impressive names, including DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman. The group believes that smart weapons, that don't need a human to control them, are a step too far in how we wage wars with each other.

I'm in the cockpit of a Typhoon fighter jet. It's a scene inside an Oculus Rift headset at the new Training and Simulation Integration Facility belonging to defence company BAE Systems. It seems that to make the next great fighter jet, you start by working out what ideas you can pinch from the big consumer tech companies. The burning question on my mind, though, is how the company can even consider replacing cockpit controls with a view of the landscape.