Banning killer robots? Is that a thing?

The theme of this Year's conference is Autonomy and AI and is intended to encourage debate and analysis of the limits and safeguards that must be established when giving AI systems more autonomy. Such limits and safe- guards must be established for AI systems to progress in way that supports a just and prosperous society. This topic will be central on some invited talks, panels, sessions. An open letter signed by 116 founders of companies from 26 different countries warns that the development of lethal autonomous weapons, which can kill without direct human control, is proceeding at pace and that moves to ban them – in a similar way to chemical weapons – are moving too slowly. A key organiser of the letter, Toby Walsh, Scientia Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of NSW in Sydney, will release it at a gathering of world leading artificial intelligence (AI) experts in Melbourne on Monday.