Darius Shahtahmasebi - is a New Zealand-based legal and political analyst who focuses on US foreign policy in the Middle East, Asia and Pacific region. He is fully qualified as a lawyer in two international jurisdictions.

3 Jun, 2021

The prospect of AI-led warfare is inching ever closer if events in Libya last year are anything to go by. Despite calls for a ban, killer robots present a terrifying, apocalyptic vision of lawless conflict in the future.

When I was studying international human rights law at university almost a decade ago, I recall our lecturer stating that experts anticipate military enthusiasts to have fully developed killer robot technology within the next 20 years. Those predictions seem to be fairly accurate thus far, as recent developments suggest we are more or less halfway down this pathway, if not further.

According to a 548-page United Nations report seen by the New Scientist, a “lethal” weaponized drone may, in fact, have “hunted down a human target” without being told to, i.e. completely autonomously. Allegedly, a Kargu-2 quadcopter took it upon itself to seek out a human target during a skirmish between Libyan government forces and those loyal to rival Khalifa Haftar in Libya in March last year.

The Kargu, known as a ‘loitering drone,’ uses machine learning-based object identification to determine and engage targets. It also has swarming capabilities, which allow up to 20 drones to work together.

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