Ban autonomous lethal weapons

I send greetings to everyone attending these important consultations on a defining issue of our time — the threat posed by lethal autonomous weapons systems. Machines that have the power and discretion to take human lives without human control are p... more Verified source (2025)

Life-and-death decisions must never be delegated to sensors and algorithms. Human control over the use of force is critical to preserving accountability in warfare. Machines with the power to take lives without human involvement should be banned unde... more Verified source (2025)

in light of the tragedy that is armed conflict, it is urgent to reconsider the development and use of devices like the so-called ‘lethal autonomous weapons’ and ultimately ban their use. This starts from an effective and concrete commitment to introd... more Verified source (2024)

All AI systems should be under meaningful human control. This is especially true for those that could be used in the taking of human lives. Moreover, current AI systems are inherently unpredictable and fundamentally brittle, unsuited for very high st... more AI Unverifiable source (2026) < 1 of 2 >

It is not permissible to entrust lethal or otherwise irreversible decisions to artificial systems. No algorithm can make war morally acceptable. (Magnifica humanitas, §198) AI Verified source (2026) < 1 of 6 >

Any weapon or military tool that reduces a person to a data point for killing is unacceptable. States must outlaw machines making life or death decisions. [...] The use of unregulated military AI in Gaza and Ukraine clearly shows the dangers of these... more AI Verified source (2026)

Fully autonomous weapons means that you can press one button and kill one million people. We're moving very quickly towards this world. AI Verified source (2026) < 1 of 2 >

After Anthropic said, we don't want to support mass domestic surveillance of Americans and we don't want to support autonomous weapons, you'll notice that Sam Altman jumped right in and said, we'll sell ChatGPT to the government to do both of those t... more AI Verified source (2026)

The lack of serious guardrails shows a troubling lack of concern for these real and immediate risks to civilians both in the United States and abroad. A sole focus on achieving maximum lethality is inherently incompatible with civilian protection. [.... more AI Verified source (2026)

It should be obvious that applying hallucinatory and unreliable generative AI to weapon systems without humans in the loop could be catastrophic. [...] Paraphrasing a button that I used to wear as a teenager, one hallucination could ruin your whole p... more AI Unverifiable source (2026)

I am particularly concerned that the DoD is trying to strong-arm American companies into providing the Department with the tools to spy on American citizens and deploy fully autonomous weapons without adequate safeguards. The barring of Anthropic app... more AI Verified source (2026)

I resigned from OpenAI. [...] AI has an important role in national security. But [...] lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got. Unverified source (2026) < 1 of 2 >

It is fundamental to retain human control and judgement in the use of force, and a moratorium on the development and use of lethal autonomous weapons systems should be established immediately. AI Verified source (2026)

For the first time, the United States is using AI to generate targets in large-scale combat operations in Iran. And lawmakers are still debating whether to draw red lines on fully autonomous weapons. The absence of governance is itself a national sec... more AI Unverifiable source (2026)

It is evident that the world must act urgently to alter the self-destructive path we are on. An escalating arms race in disruptive technologies like unregulated AI, autonomous weapons, nuclear arms and other dangerous weapons is driving this path. No... more AI Verified source (2026)

Over the past few weeks, it has become even more clear that there is an urgent need for guardrails on how AI is used by the Defense Department. [...] Whenever a technology has the capability of taking a human life, there needs to be a human operator ... more AI Verified source (2026)

Congress is behind in putting left and right limits on the use of AI, and the first place to start should be at the Pentagon. My bill ensures a human is involved when deadly autonomous weapons are fired, AI cannot be used to spy on the American peopl... more AI Verified source (2026)

Today, frontier AI systems are simply not reliable enough to power fully autonomous weapons. We will not knowingly provide a product that puts America’s warfighters and civilians at risk [...] fully autonomous weapons cannot be relied upon to exercis... more Verified source (2026)

The Secretary-General has always said that using machines with fully delegated power, making a decision to take human life is just simply morally repugnant. It should not be allowed. It should be, in fact, banned by international law. That's the Unit... more AI Verified source (2025)

Autonomous Weapon Systems, which are capable of identifying and attacking targets without direct human intervention, are a “cause for grave ethical concern” because they lack the “unique human capacity for moral judgment and ethical decision-making.”... more AI Verified source (2025)

This risk should further motivate us to redesign the global political system in a way that would completely eradicate wars and thus obviate the need for military organizations and military weapons. [...] It goes without saying that lethal autonomous... more AI Verified source (2023)

What greater attack on human rights and human dignity could there be than allowing an algorithm to make life‑or‑death decisions? Human rights and humanitarian international law are our compass; they must continue to focus on people, not on machines. ... more AI Verified source (2021)

Rapid technological advances raise fundamental legal, moral and security questions. No more so than lethal autonomous weapons systems. This is not science fiction. It is fast becoming a reality – a reality that the Secretary-General of the UN has rig... more AI Verified source (2021)

The developments in Artificial Intelligence and facial recognition technologies, as well as other related technologies, could remove that human element from the control of these weapons altogether. They should be banned. They should be banned pre-emp... more AI Verified source (2020)

We have been working for the past seven years now trying to get an international treaty to prohibit fully autonomous weapons systems of this nature. AI Verified source (2020)

Ban the development, transfer, deployment and use of fully autonomous weapons systems. Verified source (2020)

It is obviously gratifying to see one’s research having an impact. At the same time, it should be recognised that we have a long way to go before there will be a complete ban, as I and many others have called for. This is an immensely complicated iss... more AI Verified source (2018)

There are more problems with fully autonomous weapons, but the conclusion is clear to me: while they have some advantages, their use is ethically highly problematic in many ways. Therefore, we should not use them and perhaps ban them. Based on the mo... more AI Verified source (2018)

Weapons without meaningful human control over selecting and attacking targets should be banned before it is too late, stressed MEPs on Wednesday. AI Verified source (2018)

The next revolution in warfare threatens to undermine fundamental principles of morality and law. Fully autonomous weapons, already under development in a number of countries, would have the power to select targets and fire on them without meaningful... more AI Unverifiable source (2018)

I don't think it's reasonable for us to put robots in charge of whether or not we take a human life. [...] I was "an advocate for keeping that restriction." Humans needed to remain in the decision making process "because we take our values to war." AI Verified source (2017)

We must add autonomous weapons to the list of weapons that are morally unacceptable to use. AI Verified source (2017)

The point of a preemptive treaty is to prevent future harm and with all the dangers and concerns associated with fully autonomous weapons, it would be irresponsible to take a “wait and see” approach and only try to deal with the issue after the harm ... more AI Verified source (2016)

agree to start negotiating a preemptive ban on fully autonomous weapons, AI Verified source (2016)

That is why I believe we need to ban them as fast and as hard as we possibly can. AI Verified source (2016)

Although engaged citizens sign petitions everyday, it is not often that captains of industry, scientists and technologists call for prohibitions on innovation of any sort — let alone an outright ban. The ban is an important signifier. Even if it is s... more AI Verified source (2015)

We need a law to ban autonomous robots from killing people on their own initiative. For example, in 2013, the Northrop Grumman X-47B, a prototype sub-sonic aircraft with two bomb compartments and a 62-foot wingspan, autonomously took off from and la... more AI Unverifiable source (2015)

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 countr... more AI Verified source (2014)

to prohibit the development, testing, production and use of autonomous weapon systems in all circumstances. AI Verified source (2014)

Killer robots loom over our future if we do not take action to ban them now, AI Verified source (2013)

Governments should pre-emptively ban fully autonomous weapons. AI Verified source (2012)

It is clear that the rational approach to the inhumanity of automating death by machine is to prohibit it. AI Verified source (2012)

The second reason I think it’s a bad idea is if the robot-with-a-gun is not remotely controlled by a human but ‘autonomous’. Of course there are serious ethical and legal problems with this, like who is responsible if the robot makes a mistake and sh... more AI Verified source

At first, lethal autonomous weapons systems that cannot guarantee use in conformity with international humanitarian law — that is, systems that are intrinsically indiscriminate; systems whose effects cannot be limited, anticipated and controlled; sys... more AI Verified source (2025)

Personal view: I admire @AnthropicAI sticking by their principles but disagree with the principle itself. Putin won't fight fair so we should have autonomous AI weapons for sure. Unverified source (2026)

I argue that enacting a global ban would be both unnecessary and insufficient for avoiding or meaningfully limiting AWS proliferation to actors willing to use them as weapons of subjugation and terror. It would be unnecessary because banning high-end... more AI Verified source (2025)

World military powers both large and small are pursuing artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled and autonomous weapon systems. Such systems have the potential to help commanders make faster, better, and more relevant decisions. They will enable weapon s... more AI Verified source (2021)

The United States has opposed calls to develop a ban and does not support opening negotiations, whether on a legally binding instrument or a political declaration, at this time. We must not be anti-technology and must be cautious not to make hasty ju... more AI Verified source (2020)

To the second part of your question, I am strongly in favor of discussions internationally about things like norms. I think with this point, it would be counterproductive to have outright bans on things that people don't even fully understand what th... more AI Verified source (2019)

There has been increasing debate over the use of autonomous weapons in the military, whether they should be banned for offensive uses, and even whether such technologies threaten human existence. As a former fighter pilot for the U.S. Navy, but also ... more AI Verified source (2019)

“Here is one of the problems with the Campaign To Stop Killer Robots,” said former deputy defense secretary Robert Work. “They refer to ‘lethal autonomous weapons systems.’ […] They’re defining a weapon that is unsupervised or independent from human ... more AI Verified source (2019)

We believe it is premature to enter into negotiations on a legally binding instrument, a political declaration, a code of conduct, or other similar instrument, and we cannot support a mandate to enter into such negotiations. AI Verified source (2018)

Thus, a prohibition on the development and use of lethal autonomous weapons systems is not the simple solution it appears to be. AI Verified source (2018)

The UK remains fully committed to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Under the UK’s chairmanship in 2017, High Contracting Parties agreed essential financial reforms. But the Convention will only become financially stable if all High Con... more AI Unverifiable source (2018)

Those headlines were misleading. The letter doesn’t explicitly call for a ban, although one of the organizers has suggested it does. Rather, it offers technical advice to a UN committee on autonomous weapons formed in December. The group’s warning t... more AI Verified source (2017)

The U.S. Department of Defense has a policy to keep a “human in the loop” when deploying lethal force. […] “For example, commanders can use precision‑guided weapon systems with homing functions to reduce the risk of civilian casualties,” said Cabines... more AI Verified source (2017)

“You are unlikely to achieve a full ban of autonomous weapons,” he says. AI Verified source (2017)

a categorical ban on AWS is unjustified morally and legally AI Verified source (2017)

Even worse, the proposed solution—a legally binding treaty banning autonomous weapons—won't solve the real problems humanity faces as autonomy advances in weapons. AI Verified source (2017)

But a ban is not the solution – neither is inflaming the public with dystopian visions of the future. AI Unverifiable source (2017)

We’re not going to be able to prevent autonomous armed robots from existing. The real question that we should be asking is this: Could autonomous armed robots perform better than armed humans in combat, resulting in fewer casualties on both sides? T... more AI Verified source (2015) < 1 of 5 >

The open letter signed by more than 12,000 prominent people calling for a ban on artificially intelligent killer robots, connected to arguments for a UN ban on the same, is misguided and perhaps even reckless. Wait, misguided? Reckless? Let me offer... more AI Verified source (2015)

I believe that now is the wrong time to be making decisions like this. Having the discussion is fine. But saying, “No, we’re not going to work on this” is wrong. First, we need to understand what’s possible. We can make a choice not to use what we de... more AI Verified source (2015)

Those who reply that to delegate firing at targets to a machine is on principle unacceptable are begging the question. They do not define the “human dignity” they invoke, nor do they explain how exactly it is violated. Regarding the Martens Clause, i... more AI Verified source (2015)

Advocates of a ban on autonomous weapons often claim that the technology today isn’t good enough to discriminate reliably between civilian and military targets, and therefore can’t comply with the laws of war. In some situations, that’s true. For oth... more AI Verified source (2015)

these efforts should not be prematurely terminated by a preemptive ban. AI Verified source (2015)

The United States should oppose attempts at the CCW to ban LAWS, AI Verified source (2015)

Unrealistic, belated and short-sighted, and ignores mankind's frailties. I am not advocating their use, but I object to an outright ban. […] At a minimum, it's at least possible that at some point in the not-too-distant future LARs may be able to bet... more AI Verified source (2013)