Autonomous weapons: UN states agree on a definition of ‘killer robots’

After years of debate, 128 countries have agreed in Geneva on a definition of autonomous weapons, a first step in the United Nations’ effort to curb systems often called killer robots.

Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen announced the agreement on X and described it as an important move toward regulating weapons technology that is developing rapidly. The talks took place during a week of meetings under the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which restricts or bans weapons that cannot distinguish between combatants and civilians or that cause unnecessary suffering.

The document is not legally binding, and its text has not yet been published. Still, the agreement could create a path toward formal treaty negotiations. No treaty currently governs autonomous and artificial intelligence-enabled weapons.

The deal comes as concern grows over the use of autonomous systems in military conflicts, including in Ukraine, Sudan and the Middle East. The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that developing and deploying such weapons without clear limits raises serious legal, ethical and humanitarian questions. Alongside civil society groups, it is pressing for binding rules that would ban unpredictable autonomous weapons and systems designed to use force directly against people.

ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric and UN Secretary-General António Guterres renewed that appeal at the end of August. They warned that the international community was dangerously close to crossing a moral red line: machines autonomously targeting people. Nicole van Rooijen, executive director of the Stop Killer Robots campaign, said the document addressed both the definition and other issues, while the United States and Russia reportedly secured changes to the text.

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A dangerous step toward crossing a moral red line: machines autonomously targeting people.