Comment by Denise Garcia

Instead, Washington should take the lead in drafting a new, international agreement to ban killer robots and regulate other kinds of autonomous systems. There is no better time to push for such a prohibition than next week, on May 13, when 117 countries will meet in Geneva for the first multilateral UN talks on killer robots at the United Nations. There, the United States should stand up and tell the world that people must remain in complete control when it comes to war and peace. According to the International Court of Justice, even if a means of war does not violate international law, it may still breach the dictates of public conscience through what is known as the Martens Clause, a preamble in the Hague Convention that its drafters inserted to cover new and unexpected contingencies. The clause recommended that states effectively evaluate the moral and ethical repercussions of any new technologies. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have invoked the Martens Clause in advocating for a preemptive ban on killer robots.