No sci-fi joke: ‘killer robots’ strike fear into tech leaders

Skynet coming?: Autonomous weapons are the precursor to a virtually inevitable global arms race, say scientists. Photo: AFP

BUENOS AIRES: It sounds like a science-fiction nightmare. But “killer robots” have the likes of British scientist Stephen Hawking and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak fretting, and warning they could fuel ethnic cleansing and an arms race. 

Autonomous weapons, which use artificial intelligence to select targets without human intervention, have been described as “the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms,” around 1,000 technology chiefs wrote in an open letter.