Geneva (AFP) – The United Nations and the Red Cross warned Tuesday that the world is "dangerously close" to a future where so-called "killer robots" could target humans, and issued an urgent appeal for international regulation of autonomous weapons.
Issued on: 25/08/2026 - 14:40
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The warning follows a 2023 call by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), for specific bans and restrictions on the rapidly-developing technology by this year."Today, we renew this call with even greater urgency," they said in a joint statement, adding that while their "fundamental concerns remain unchanged... the risks have intensified"."We are now dangerously close to crossing a moral red line: the autonomous targeting of humans by machines," they warned.Lethal autonomous weapon systems are generally understood as weapon systems that select targets and apply force without human intervention."Autonomous weapon systems are already used in the battlefield, they are used in broader environments, and that increases the risk for civilians being killed," Laurent Gisel, head of ICRC's arms and conduct of hostilities unit, told reporters.There has so far been no confirmed use of fully autonomous weapons to directly target humans, according to experts.
