UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres and Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, yesterday said that getting to grips with so-called killer robots was a global “humanitarian priority”.

They called on states to establish specific bans and restrictions on autonomous weapon systems by 2026, “to shield present and future generations from the consequences of their use”.

“In the current security landscape, setting clear international red lines will benefit all states,” they said.

Autonomous weapon systems – generally understood as weapon systems that select targets and apply force without human intervention – “pose serious humanitarian, legal, ethical, and security concerns”, they said.

Guterres and Spoljaric said their development and proliferation had the potential to change the way wars are fought and thereby fuel global instability.

“By creating a perception of reduced risk to military forces and to civilians, they may lower the threshold for engaging in conflicts – inadvertently escalating violence,” they explained.

“We must act now to preserve human control over the use of force. Human control must be retained in life and death decisions. The autonomous targeting of humans by machines is a moral line that we must not cross.”

“Machines with the power and discretion to take lives without human involvement should be prohibited by international law.”