Noel Sharkey, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, believes that the world is on the verge of a new kind of arms race and the threat could be looming closer than we anticipated. This new arms race could be triggered by the fact that various countries, including UK, US, China, Israel, Russia, Japan and Republic of Korea have in fact created robots that can find and kill targets without any human supervision. This massive leap in advanced warfare technology has caused concern in various parts of the world and has led to many countries focusing their research on this specific area of robotics.
The international repercussions of this developing situation has been enormous, leading to the creation of a new coalition against killer robots. This coalition includes 54 non-governmental organizations who came together in 2012 to persuade the United Nations against the use of such weapons.
Although this coalition has not seen too much success, the development of killer robotics has seen new and improved forms such as tanks, planes and submarines. Experts believe that the battlefield could rapidly change due to these advancements and could possible even lead to express wars in the near-future.
