Killer Robots: Lethal Autonomous Weapons and International Law

Abstract

1. According to Isaac Asimov's 1942 sci-fi story Runaround, the 'First Law of Robotics' prescribes that 'a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm'. The Second law states that 'a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law'. Technology has come a long way since the heyday of sci-fi books and films about robot overlords and robotised weaponry. And while science-fiction literature and Hollywood have surely fuelled the imagination of the general audience, our civilisation is nowhere near robot domination yet. Nevertheless, technological developments in the methods and means of warfare brew at the horizon like an ever more ominous cloud, and the question of whether humanity needs its own Laws of Robotics becomes increasingly prominent.