Unstoppable march of the robot armies

The third major arms race in history is under way, ferocious and largely unnoticed by the public. As always, it has been sparked by a combination of human ingenuity, fear and aggression. The first arms race was triggered by the invention of gunpowder. And the third is driven by the race to develop armaments using artificial intelligence (AI), weapons that can think and fight for themselves, and change the character of war itself. Science fiction writers and television producers have done the world no favours by making "robot wars" seem fanciful and fantastic.