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The United Nations and the Red Cross are warning that rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic weapons are bringing the world dangerously close to crossing a moral red line that has inspired dystopian science fiction for decades: the autonomous targeting of humans by deadly machines.

In an appeal to world leaders on August 25, the International Committee of the Red Cross and UN Secretary-General António Guterres renewed their call for a global treaty establishing restrictions on autonomous weapons systems. They warned that the technology behind AI targeting software and unpiloted drones has developed at record speed since the UN and Red Cross first called for such negotiations three years ago.

“At the same time, scientists and engineers developing these systems have themselves raised the alarm,” Guterres and the Red Cross said in a joint statement on August 25. “When the architects of this technology are calling for limits, States cannot afford to remain passive. This year must mark a turning point.”

In other words, the world must act now to rein in what are commonly known as “killer robots” or “slaughterbots” — unpiloted drones, robotic dogs, robot sentries armed with guns, AI targeting systems, and other digitally driven death machines that can identify, strike, and eliminate human beings on their own.

“You don’t even need drone operators; you can just type in a coordinate and not see the implications of what you are doing,” said Rory Fanning, an author, activist, and veteran of the U.S. war on Afghanistan, in an interview.

Report: Israeli Army Uses AI to Produce Palestinian Targets for Assassination

The world must act now to rein in what are commonly known as “killer robots” — unpiloted drones and other digitally driven death machines that can strike human beings on their own.

The world must act now to rein in what are commonly known as “killer robots” — unpiloted drones and other digitally driven death machines that can strike human beings on their own.

Killer robots no longer exist in the realm of science fiction. Autonomous weapons are increasingly being deployed on the battlefield, including in the wars funded and waged by the U.S. in Ukraine and Iran, respectively. While the U.S. and other militaries have flown drones with remote human pilots for years, AI targeting systems are being integrated into drones that can identify, track, and eliminate targets on their own.

“The same technology that brings you an Uber kills somebody in Palestine, and people really need know that and consider that,” Lisa Ling, a U.S. veteran who worked at the Pentagon’s drone program prior to 2012, told Truthout.

In Palestine, autonomous weapon systems are targeting and brutally killing people in Gaza and the West Bank as part of ethnic cleansing campaigns sanctioned by Israel’s far right........

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