A few weeks ago, the United Nations affirmed Isaac Asimov’s First Law of Robotics: “A robot may not injure a human being.” Christof Heyns, the U.N. special rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, said as much in a May 29 speech to the Human Rights Council in Geneva calling for a moratorium on the development of lethal robots. His argument followed two thoughtful paths, expressing concern that they cannot be as discriminating in their judgments as humans and that their very existence might make war too easy to contemplate. As he summed up the grim prospect of robot soldiers, “War without reflection is mechanical slaughter.”
Read more: