Killer Drone Autonomously 'Hunted Down' a Human Target, UN Experts Say

A "lethal" weaponized drone "hunted down" and "remotely engaged" human targets without its handlers' say-so during a conflict in Libya last year, according to a United Nations report first covered by New Scientist this week. Whether there were any casualties remains unclear, but if confirmed, it would likely be the first recorded death carried out by an autonomous killer robot. In March 2020, a Kargu-2 attack quadcopter, which the agency called a "lethal autonomous weapon system," targeted retreating soldiers and convoys led by Libyan National Army's Khalifa Haftar during a civil conflict with Libyan government forces. "The lethal autonomous weapons systems were programmed to attack targets without requiring data connectivity between the operator and the munition: in effect, a true'fire, forget and find' capability," the UN Security Council's Panel of Experts on Libya wrote in the report. It remains unconfirmed whether any soldiers were killed in the attack, although the UN experts imply as much.