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Pak among countries calling for ban on Russia's proposed 'killer robots'

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ANI Washington
Last Updated : May 18 2014 | 1:40 PM IST

Pakistan has called for a 'pre-emptive' ban among other countries on Russia's ballistic proposal of self-guided killer robots.

Though none of the robots have been actually tested on the battle field but the matter was produced before the United Nations.

According to the Verge, 87 countries participated in the summit on lethal autonomous weapons hosted by the UN Convention of Certain Conventional Weapons that included those countries who were primarily at an advanced stage with robotic technology such as US, Russia, China and Israel.

The countries present in the summit discussed the policies of autonomous vs fully-autonomous lethal weapons and human control that is created during war and the human rights laws that might apply.

Pakistan has strongly vocalized and expressed grave concern against the functioning of these autonomous killer robots, due to its history with the American-infused drone attacks.

Reports further added that while France, Germany, Netherlands, the UK, and others stressed the importance of meaningful human control over targeting and attack decisions, Israel spent some of its time talking about the utility of autonomous military robots, with China and Russia not taking any concrete stands.

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Ron Arkin, a roboticist and ethicist said that the meeting brought out divergent and multiple points to be discussed but a strong consensus could not be reached terminology and definitions with the delegations were a constant problem.

The countries have passed a resolution to address the issue in November again with all the 117 member-countries of the UN in attendance.

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First Published: May 18 2014 | 1:21 PM IST

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