Autonomous weapons are different than armed drones. Drones, or “uncrewed aerial vehicles” (UAVs), are remotely piloted by humans. Human operators fly the drones by remote control, select targets, and choose when to fire upon those targets. A fully autonomous weapon would be programmed so that once it is deployed, it operates on its own. It would be able to select and fire upon targets all on its own, based upon its algorithms and data analysis programming. In essence, this means that machines would have the power to make life-and-death decisions over human beings.

Right now, hundreds of partly autonomous weapon systems have been deployed or are being developed in at least 12 countries, including China, France, Israel, South Republic of Korea, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Some military personnel or other government officials believe that killer robots would give them an advantage in battle while saving their own soldiers’ lives. They say these weapons will make calculations and decisions more quickly than humans, and that those decisions—in targeting and in attack—will be more accurate than those of humans. They also argue that the weapons will not have emotional responses to situations—they won’t go on a rampage out of revenge.

But many roboticists, scientists, tech workers, philosophers, ethicists, legal scholars, human-rights defenders, peace and disarmament activists, and governments have called for an international ban on the development of such weapons. They are concerned that these weapons will result in more civilian deaths, be unable to comply with international humanitarian law or human rights law, make war more likely, encourage an arms race, destabilise international relations, and have moral consequences such as undermining human dignity. While WILPF opposes all war and violence, there is something especially cynically abhorrent in the idea of human beings assigning killing to a technological creation. The taking of life requires human accountability, determined by morality and law. Without that we shirk our responsibilities and betray our common humanity

WILPF is a founding member of the Stop Killer Robots, a global coalition of activists working to outlaw autonomous weapon systems. Reaching Critical Will is on the Steering Committee of the Campaign and contributes to the Campaign’s advocacy with governments and analysis of international meetings. We have monitored and reported on each of the UN meetings dealing with autonomous weapons. We produce a daily report at each meeting, deliver statements, participate in events, and work with other campaigners to encourage states to support a ban on autonomous weapons and the retention of meaningful human control over all weapon systems. We also provide feminist analysis of autonomous weapon systems, including through publications, articles, and events.