It's time to ban autonomous killer robots before they become a threat

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found here. The writer is professor of computer science and Smith-Zadeh professor in engineering, University of California, Berkeley The subject of autonomous killer robots exercises many technologists, politicians and human rights activists. Indeed, the Financial Times's advice page for would-be opinion writers complains that, in their pitches, "lots of people spin doomsday scenarios about robots".