Humanity stands on the brink of a new era of warfare. Driven by rapid developments in artificial intelligence, weapons platforms that can identify, target and decide to kill human beings on their own -- without an officer directing an attack or a soldier pulling the trigger -- are fast transforming the future of conflict. Officially, they are called lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS), but critics call them killer robots. Many countries, including the United States, China, the United Kingdom, India, Iran, Israel, South Korea, Russia and Turkey, have invested heavily in developing such weapons in recent years. A United Nations report suggests that Turkish-made Kargu-2 drones in fully-automatic mode marked the dawn of this new age when they attacked combatants in Libya in 2020 amid that country's ongoing conflict. Autonomous drones have also played a crucial role in the war in Ukraine, where both Moscow and Kyiv have deployed these uncrewed weapons to target enemy soldiers and infrastructure.