Quote Originally Posted by thir View Post
"The danger is likely to escalate as drone warfare becomes more automated and the lines of accountability less clear. Last week the US navy unveiled a drone that can land on an aircraft carrier without even a remote pilot. The Los Angeles Times warned that "it could usher in an era when death and destruction can be dealt by machines operating semi-independently". The British assessment suggests that within a few years drones assisted by artificial intelligence could make their own decisions about whom to kill and whom to spare. Sorry sir, computer says yes."
Way back when America's first primitive "smart" weapons were being field-tested on the North Vietnamese people, someone suggested it was time the First Law of Robotics was incorporated into international law.

Alas, it looks as if it's now too late: any such law would be treated with the same contempt as national boundaries and the rules of war.