The First-Ever International Killer Robots Summit Was a Human Rights Flop

The first-ever International Killer Robots Summit was an unequivocal flop with respect to human rights and the preservation of existing international norms. The summit, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland in 2019, brought together representatives from over 50 countries to discuss the development and deployment of autonomous weapons as well as their ethical consequences. While the summit certainly highlighted the implications of killer robots, it failed to impose any further meaningful restrictions on the development and use of such weapons and provided little hope that governments will meaningfully commit to ensuring human rights are upheld.

The failure of the 2019 Killer Robots Summit was primarily due to the fact that the majority of participants lacked a willingness to move past minor agreements towards fully committing to protecting human rights. While the countries present at the summit generally agreed that killer robots could present a pervasive threat to human life, a consensus on how to handle the situation was quickly evasive. Nations such as the United Kingdom and Germany advocated for outright bans on the development of automated weapons systems while others, such as the United States, sought more limited regulation to ensure that existing international laws and norms related to warfare are upheld.

Even more concerning was the reluctance of some nations to even discuss assigning responsibility for any potential transgressions committed by autonomous weapons. That many countries are actively developing such weapons means that the international community is able to easily avoid potential culpability should something go wrong. This concern was further compounded by the lack of commitment to holding any individual or state responsible if such weapons do cause innocent human casualties.

The inability of the Killer Robots Summit to lead to any meaningful change speaks to the challenges faced by the international community when attempting to keep up with the rapid changes in technology. This problem also extends to other areas such as cyber warfare, trends in manufacturing, and the convergence of technologies. If governments are unable to agree on the development of killer robots, it is likely to be even more difficult to regulate and contain other potentially sinister technology developments.

The future of autonomous weapons systems is far from certain, however, the failure of the 2019 International Killer Robots Summit highlights the urgency with which meaningful action must be taken if we are to prevent these weapons from becoming a reality. Without some form of global cooperation, it is highly likely that these weapons will be developed and deployed on a large scale with the potential for devastating human rights breaches.