Educating about Autonomous Weapons - Future of Life Institute (original) (raw)

Autonomous Weapons Systems

Slaughterbots

are here

Autonomous weapons have now been used on the battlefield. We must act to secure a prohibition of these weapons.

The

Autonomous Weapons Newsletter

Stay up-to-date on the autonomous weapons space with a monthly newsletter covering policymaking efforts, weapons systems technology, and more.

FLI's Emilia Javorsky attending a panel at the 2024 Vienna Conference on Autonomous Weapons.

Policy advocacy

The push to prohibit Slaughterbots

Slaughterbots, also called ‘autonomous weapons systems’ or ‘killer robots’, are weapons that use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to identify, select, and kill human targets without human intervention. Though these weapons sound futuristic, reports of their use are starting to mount up. The Future of Life Institute considers slaughterbots to be both immoral and a major threat to global security.

Mobilising countries behind a new treaty

The FLI policy team encourages the formation of a new treaty on autonomous weapons. Alongside a majority of the world’s states, FLI argues that some autonomous weapons must be banned – specifically, those which target humans, which are highly unpredictable, or which function beyond meaningful human control. FLI, alongside the Red Cross, calls for other autonomous weapons – those that can be meaningfully controlled by humans – to be regulated.

Read position of the Red Cross

Our videos

Raising the alarm on autonomous weapons

We have produced several short films depicting a world in which autonomous weapons have been allowed to proliferate - the world we’re headed towards. Watch them, and a number of other videos we have produced in the past, below:

See more videos: YouTube Playlist

Our resources on Autonomous Weapons

Learn more

Discover how autonomous weapons are shaping our world.

We have created a website dedicated to shedding light on the issue of autonomous weapons, answering questions like:

What are autonomous weapons?

How do autonomous weapons pose a risk?

What can be done to reduce the risks?

Visit dedicated site

Check out our new autonomous weapons database to discover the most concerning autonomous weapons being developed and sold today. With weapons covering land, air, and sea, our database reveals the scale of this technology today.

We will soon be providing quarterly trend reports on the AI weapons deing developed and used on the battlefield.

A Diplomat’s Guide to Autonomous Weapons

A quick-start guide on autonomous weapons and the policy landscape surrounding the topic. Intended for diplomats who are new to the topic of autonomous weapons, or are needing a primer on the topic, our comprehensive guide covers: What AWS are; Why they pose significant risks; Common myths and misconceptions; A timeline of developments on the way to a treaty; States’ positions; And more.

View the guide

Open letters

Take a stand.

Join tens of thousands in taking a stand against the unregulated development of autonomous weapons.

Autonomous Weapons Open Letter: AI & Robotics Researchers

Autonomous weapons select and engage targets without human intervention. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has reached a point where the deployment of such systems is — practically if not legally — feasible within years, not decades, and the stakes are high: autonomous weapons have been described as the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms.

9 February, 2016

Lethal Autonomous Weapons Pledge

Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to play an increasing role in military systems. There is an urgent opportunity and necessity for citizens, policymakers, and leaders to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI. In this light, we the undersigned agree that the decision to take a human life should never be delegated to a machine.

6 June, 2018

Autonomous Weapons Open Letter: Global Health Community

Given our commitment to do no harm, the global health community has a long history of successful advocacy against inhumane weapons, and the World and American Medical Associations have called for bans on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Now, recent advances in artificial intelligence have brought us to the brink of a new arms race in lethal autonomous weapons.

13 March, 2019

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