The idea of killer robots usually conjures images from science fiction films like Terminator and Robocop, but lethal autonomous weapons have not only been developed but are currently in use. A fixed-position sentry gun, developed by Samsung for the South Korean government, can perform surveillance and is reportedly capable of firing autonomously, and it is not alone. The UK is developing a drone destined to replace human-piloted warplanes, which will not only carry air-to-air and air-to-ground weaponry and operate intercontinentally but will also incorporate full autonomy. Other countries including Russia and the U.S., are developing autonomous weapons including tanks, warships, submarines, and humanoid robots.

Two systems in particular, under development by the U.S. government, have led academics to warn that they could leave humans completely defenseless. The U.S. Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is aiming to create Academics like Stuart Russell, Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, argue that such research could breach Geneva conventions and could lead to an apocalyptic scenario where humanity is in that hands of amoral machines. The pace in which the technology is advancing means that ostensibly, self-aware, highly-armed machines, could be deployed in battle within years rather than decades, which has greatly increased the level of concern.

Even those at the forefront of robotics technology and artificial intelligence (AI), including founders of AI and robotics companies and Silicon Valley executives have been pushing the United Nations to ban the further development and use of autonomous weapons. The reason behind the call to prohibit such weapons is to stop the current arms race for killer robots and prevent it from from going any further. In a letter to the United Nations, signed by over a hundred specialists from twenty-six countries, it is argued that such an arms race could bring about the "third revolution in warfare," following the development and the use of gunpowder and nuclear arms. This arms race could be unlike anything we have seen in the past, as lethal autonomous weapons could allow for armed conflicts on scales scarcely imaginable.

Another major concern is the removal of the human factor and, by extension, the moral factor. A machine that is simply programmed to locate and destroy a target is able to do so regardless of what the target is. This raises the terrifying possibility of innocent populations being targeted by terrorists and despots. It is the moral element which has prompted the call for lethal autonomous weapons systems to be added to the list of weapons banned under the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) along with chemical and other weapons.

On top of this, there is, as with all computer-controlled machines, the added risk of malfunction and hacking. It is for these and other reasons that the call to pursue AI for peace, rather than further industrializing war, is growing increasingly louder.