Call to ban autonomous killer robots

At the conceptual level the idea of killer robots is no longer a remote possibility. Already drones and other military machines can be piloted remotely, and some are equipped with missiles. Given the pace of development in relation of autonomous technology for vehicles, and the advances with artificial intelligence in general, the idea of a machine that can directs itself in battle is plausible and, some might argue, inevitable. Inevitable, that is, unless concerted action is taken by governments to ban the development of these types of devices. This would be something similar to the treaty that is in place prohibiting the use of chemical weapons (the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction).