Norwegian researchers want a ban on “killing robots”

University of Oslo anti-IslamicUniversity of Oslo.Photo: Norway Today Media

640 graduates are asking Norwegian authorities to engage in the fight to ban autonomous weapon systems, so-called ‘murder robots’.

So far, 640 academics and technologists have signed a petition calling for a ban on “lethal autonomous weapon systems” wrote Khrono journal.

A number of those who have signed are scientists of artificial intelligence. In addition, several principals, department heads, and research leaders at the country’s universities and colleges have also signed the petition.

Autonomous weapon systems are weapons that, based on artificial intelligence, themselves find the target, control themselves, and attack. The UN started a few years ago to ban such weapons.

The organisation’s general secretary, António Guterres, last year stated that such weapons are “politically unacceptable, morally reprehensible, and should be banned by international law”.

‘’There are both moral and ethical reasons to ban such weapons. They are, to put it mildly, problematic in relation to humanitarian law. And with the democratisation of technology now taking place, the costs of the technology in a few years will be so low that they could quickly end up in the hands of a despot, non-state actor or terrorist group’’ said Morten Irgens, the initiator of the petition and pro-rector of research at Oslo Met. to Khrono.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today

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