Aerospace firm BAE Systems is working with the Australian Army on two armored personnel carriers that will make soldiers’ presence on the battlefield not essential. The M113 AS4 could help carry out support and intelligence missions. The company said the Australian army will test the robots to “better understand the opportunities to employ autonomy on the battlefield.” BAE hopes that the work on these autonomous weapon systems will be completed by October.
"Autonomous technology will assist soldiers to respond in an accelerating warfare environment — increasing their speed of initiative to outpace, out-manoeuvre and out-think conventional and unconventional threats," chief technology officer Brad Yelland said in a statement.
The widespread development of autonomous weaponry has sparked fears among the scientific and tech community. Microsoft President Brad Smith has recently urged the countries to come up with a Geneva type convention that would set guidelines on the use of AI-powered weapon systems, saying “the safety of civilians is at risk today.”
UN head Antonio Guterres was more condemning of the use of killer robots, calling it morally repugnant.
Autonomous machines with the power and discretion to select targets and take lives without human involvement are politically unacceptable, morally repugnant and should be prohibited by international law. https://t.co/DhG1DqY8Rx
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 25, 2019
