On April 13-17, delegates to the United Nations
Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons
(CCW) will discuss lethal autonomous weapon
systems, an emerging technology that raises signif-
icant legal, moral, ethical, and policy issues. is
meeting builds on discussions held in May of 2014,
and states should use this opportunity to further
their understanding of this important issue.
What are Lethal Autonomous Weapon
Systems (LAWS)?
LAWS are weapon systems that, once activated, are
intended to select and engage targets on their own,
also known as operating without a human “in the
loop.”
• LAWS would be dierent from drones today,
where a human is responsible for ring weapons
against any target.
Why Discuss LAWS?
Increasing autonomy in systems across militaries
and the commercial sector suggest it is important
to consider this topic now:
• Rapid advances in computer technology have
raised the prospect of future development of
autonomous systems in many applications.
• It is important to distinguish between trends
toward greater autonomy in systems in gen-
eral, such as self-driving cars, military robots,
or missiles with advanced navigation fea-
tures, and autonomous weapon systems that
would select and engage targets on their own.
• Some simple forms of autonomous weapons
already exist, although they are generally
limited to systems supervised by humans
that protect vehicles and military bases from
attacks.
• ere are some issues that may be unique
to LAWS in comparison with other weapon
systems, some issues that are exacerbated by
LAWS, and some that apply to any weapon,
including LAWS.
What Issues Should Delegates Consider?
While intelligent, humanoid robots are likely
to rmly remain in the realm of science ction,
simple autonomous weapons are possible today.
Understanding the technological range of the
possible is an important task.
• Autonomous weapons require thinking care-
fully about issues of accountability to ensure
that any weapons are used in compliance
with the law of war.
AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS AT THE UN:
A Primer for delegates
By Paul Scharre, Michael C.
Horowitz, and Kelley Sayler
