At a UN meeting in New York today, the International Human Rights Clinic and Human Rights Watch called for urgent action to stop the development of fully autonomous weapons, or “killer robots.” The Clinic and HRW released a question and answer document earlier in the day that makes plain the seriousness of the threat from these weapons, which would have the ability to identify and fire on human targets without intervention. The document builds on a Nov. 2012 report jointly published by the Clinic and HRW, entitled Losing Humanity: The Case Against Killer Robots.
Clinical students Kenny Pyetranker, J.D. ’13, Jonathan Nomamiukur, J.D. ’13, and Harin Song, J.D. ’14 contributed both research and writing to the paper released today. Please see here for the full press release from HRW.