Call for ban on 'killer robots' - but are they really on the way?

"ROBOTS ARE NOT taking over the world", was the message given this week during United Nations talks on the issue of autonomous weapons. That's according to the diplomat leading the first official talks on the issue, the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), as they sought to ease criticism over slow progress towards restricting the use of so-called "killer robots". The United Nations was wrapping up an initial five days of discussions on weapons systems that can identify and destroy targets without human control, which experts say will soon be battle ready. The meeting of the CCW marked an initial step towards an agreed set of rules governing such weapons. But activists warned that time was running out and that the glacial pace of the UN-brokered discussions was not responding to an arms race already underway.