The UN will discuss an international ban on the use of autonomous weapons with artificial intelligence, capable of selecting and attacking targets independently without human intervention.
According to AFP, the conference will begin on November 16 in Geneva. Its participants will consider the possibility of banning or limiting such systems, also known as "killer robots".
Experts warn that the development of military artificial intelligence precedes the creation of international rules for its use. Modern technologies already allow UAVs to respond independently to changing situations and select targets that were not previously determined by the operator.
According to AFP, autonomous weapons have yet to become widespread, but analysts have already documented their use by Russia in the war against Ukraine, as well as by the United States during attacks on Iran.
At the same time, countries differ in their approaches to regulating such systems. The US advocates maintaining adequate human control, while France prohibits fully autonomous lethal systems, allowing partial autonomy.
UN Secretary-General Guterres and Red Cross President Spolarich have previously warned that the world is dangerously close to crossing the line beyond which machines will independently make decisions to kill people.
Experts believe that autonomous weapons will become common on the battlefield in the coming years. In particular, swarms of UAVs capable of simultaneously attacking the enemy with a large number of devices are considered a promising area.
It should be noted that the uncontrolled use of UAVs may turn whole areas into deserts, as the war in Ukraine proved.