The U.N. and Red Cross chiefs warned Tuesday that autonomous weapons, capable of killing without human control, could soon be used in war and urged urgent talks to limit them.
"We are now dangerously close to crossing a moral red line: the autonomous targeting of humans by machines," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a joint statement with the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross Mirjana Spoljaric.
"Negotiations must begin now to urgently adopt a legally binding instrument to regulate autonomous weapon systems with clear prohibitions and restrictions," they said.
States meet in Geneva next week to discuss potential new rules amid mounting concerns over the role of AI-assisted semi-autonomous weapons that have been used in conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza, Iran and the Gulf.
The discussions, which began in 2014, have made some progress but technology has also advanced. Fully autonomous weapons are already in use by some armies, such as anti-missile systems on warships.
