Killer robots: pressure builds for ban as governments meet

Countries spending billions on 'third revolution in warfare' as UN debates regulation of AI-powered weapons

They will be "weapons of terror, used by terrorists and rogue states against civilian populations. Unlike human soldiers, they will follow any orders however evil," says Toby Walsh, professor of artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales, Australia.

"These will be weapons of mass destruction. One programmer and a 3D printer can do what previously took an army of people. They will industrialise war, changing the speed and duration of how we can fight. They will be able to kill 24-7 and they will kill faster than humans can act to defend themselves."