lethal autonomous weapons

Some countries and private companies are using “counter-terrorism and security rhetoric” to justify a major increase in the deployment and use of cutting-edge surveillance technology, with no regulation, and at an “enormous cost” to human rights, said an independent UN expert on Tuesday.

The growing use of weaponised drones risks destabilising global peace and security and creating a “drone power club” among nations, that face no effective accountability for deploying them as part of their “war on terror”, a senior UN-appointed independent rights expert said on Thursday.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged artificial intelligence (AI) experts meeting in Geneva on Monday to push ahead with their work to restrict the development of lethal autonomous weapons systems, or LAWS, as they are also known.