Lethal autonomous weapons powered by artificial intelligence (AI) are set to revolutionise warfare, but there is no proper regulatory or legal framework governing the new technology.
A conference starting today at the United Nations in Geneva will discuss how to establish curbs and prohibitions on such weapons, called killer robots by some.
But some analysts doubt the discussions at the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons will keep pace with the fast-changing weapons.
Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) "can identify, select and engage a target without the intervention of a human operator in the execution of these tasks", said Geneva Centre for Security Policy head of global and emerging risks Jean-Marc Rickli.
