An artificial intelligence expert has called for countries to ban so-called "killer robots" before activists' warnings against them become a reality. The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots recently released a short film, in which autonomous weapons are used to carry out mass killings with frightening efficiency, while people struggle to work out how to combat them. A United Nations panel discussed the issue last week, but next plans to meet next year. Toby Walsh, Scientia Professor of AI at UNSW Sydney, says he's "confident" that killer robots will be banned, but is worried that the decision could take a long time to make. "[The] arms race has happened [and] is happening today," he said at the UN, reports AFP.

Hundreds of artificial intelligence experts have urged the Canadian and Australian governments to ban "killer robots". They say that delegating life-or-death decisions to machines crosses "a clear moral line", and that the development of autonomous weapons will result in machines, rather than people, deciding who lives and who dies. Such systems, including drones, military robots and unmanned vehicles, should be treated in the same way as chemical weapons, biological weapons and nuclear weapons, they say. An open letter addressed to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been signed by 122 AI researchers, while an open letter sent to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has 216 signatories. Toby Walsh, the organiser of the Australian letter and Scientia Professor of AI at UNSW Sydney, said, "The Canadian AI research community is clear: we must not permit AI to target or kill without meaningful human control. "Delegating life-or-death decisions to machines crosses a fundamental moral line – no matter which side builds or uses them.