Robots pre-programmed to fire weapons with NO human involvement just 'years away'
KILLER robots programmed to take out enemy combatants without any human involvement could be available within years, experts have warned.
Battlefield robots are already in use - but all are controlled by humans
Brutal robotic soldiers which could aim and shoot at an aggressor are likely to become a feature of the battlefield within a decade, a report has claimed.
Research by Human Rights Watch and the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic raised the prospect that humans would "delegate life-and-death decisions to machines".
The report's authors call for a ban on the robots, as well as self-targeting tanks, fearing the technology would lead to a global arms race.
Bonnie Docherty, senior arms division researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: "Machines have long served as instruments of war, but historically humans have directed how they are used.
"Now there is a real threat that humans would relinquish their control and delegate life-and-death decisions to machines."
Proponents of robotic warfare say removing the need for humans on the battlefield will ultimately save lives.
But the prevailing view amongst technology and robotics experts is of the dangers such advancements would pose.
Physicist Stephen Hawking and entrepreneur Elon Musk were among more than 1,000 high profile names in the science and engineering world who last year published an open letter urging caution around robotic warfare.
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An army technician fixing a robot
The letter stated: "The endpoint of this technological trajectory is obvious: autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow."
Today's reports comes as the United Nations kicks off a week-long meeting on robotic weapons in Geneva.
Last week the US Navy launched its first self-piloting ship designed to hunt enemy submarines.
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The 132-foot-long (40-metre-long) unarmed prototype, dubbed the Sea Hunter, is designed to cruise on the ocean's surface for two or three months at a time - without a crew or anyone controlling it remotely.
The seafaring equivalent of Google's self-driving car, Sea Hunter, could save the Navy millions of dollars if it successfully tracks down enemy vessels without the need for a costly crew.
Peter Singer, an expert on robotic warfare at the New America Foundation think tank, said: "We're not working on anti-submarine [technology] just because we think it's cool.
"We're working on it because we're deeply concerned about the advancements that China and Russia are making in this space."
The ship is believed to have cost just £14m - a fraction of the cost of a conventional craft - and has a daily operating cost of between £10,000 and £14,000.