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Russia's reluctant position on supporting more formal efforts to address concerns over lethal autonomous weapons systems came under scrutiny at a conference in Moscow at the end of September. The Russian Federation views more formal discussions on the matter at the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) as “premature” and told an April 2016 meeting that it sees “divergent and conflicting positions” relating to “a common understanding of the subject under discussion and the scope of this issue.”

The use of a remotely-controlled bomb disposal robot in Dallas, Texas on July 7 to deliver an explosive that detonated, killing a man suspected of shooting more than a dozen people, has attracted media attention and public scrutiny across the United States and around the world. While several media headlines have called this a “killer robot,” it is not the type of autonomous weapon that our global coalition of non-governmental organizations have been campaigning against since 2013. Nevertheless, the use of a robot in policing with lethal intent may raise ethical and other concerns.

Momentum to prohibit weapons that would select and attack targets without further human intervention is building rapidly while a multilateral process to discuss the weapons proceeds, but at a lacklustre pace. This week, five countries called for a preemptive ban on fully autonomous…

11 April 2016 Geneva PRESS RELEASE: Focus on Meaningful Human Control of Weapons Systems – Third United Nations meeting on killer robots opens in Geneva Countries should affirm the necessity of meaningful human control over the capacity…

The third Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) meeting on lethal autonomous weapons systems will be held at the United Nations (UN) Palais des Nations in Geneva on 11-15 April 2016. The following Frequently Asked Questions provide background on the objectives and purpose of this multilateral meeting. The formal proceedings will not be webcast live, but some statements will be posted online. Campaigners will also provide updates, including via Twitter where @BanKillerRobots and delegates will tweet the using the hashtag #CCWUN for the meeting.

The challenge of killer robots is firmly on the agenda in Norway, where the ethics council of the $830 billion Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global has announced it intends to begin monitoring companies investing in the potential development of fully autonomous weapons systems. Ethics council chair Johan H. Andresen said the aim is to see if such investments would be contrary to the fund’s investment policies and ethical guidelines. He described the initiative as "a statement of fair warning, a heads-up." This move by the world’s largest pension fund should spur similar funds and other investors to take a critical look at their investments amid rising concerns over weapons that would select and attack targets without meaningful human control. It sends strong signal in Oslo that it's time for Norway to get serious about dealing with fully autonomous weapons.

Today at the Human Rights Council in Geneva two high-ranking UN experts issued a new report that includes a call to ban fully autonomous weapons. Previous UN reports issued in 2013 and 2014 called for a moratorium on these weapons, which would function autonomously without human control or intervention. The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots invites all states to review the new report and respond to its call to ban autonomous weapons systems. 

Yesterday (21 January 2015), the World Economic Forum convened an hour-long panel discussion in cooperation with TIME to consider "what if robots go to war?” The session at the annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland featured four speakers: former UN disarmament chief Angela Kane, BAE Systems chair Sir Roger Carr, artificial intelligence (AI) expert Stuart Russell and robot ethics expert Alan Winfield. Despite their different backgrounds, all the participants agreed that autonomous weapons systems pose dangers and require swift diplomatic action to negotiate a legally-binding instrument that draws the line at weapons not under human control. Killer robot concerns were raised in other panels, indicating a high level of interest in the topic at Davos.

For the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, the highlight of 2015 was the second meeting on lethal autonomous weapons systems held at the United Nations in Geneva in April. Representatives from more than 90 countries as well as UN agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the campaign convened at the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) to engage in five days of substantive deliberations with invited experts on ethical, legal, operational, security, technical, and other challenges raised by these weapons.