Experts warn AI will encourage war
The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence has spoke of its fears regarding the ethics of autonomous weapons. One of the largest concerns was the risk of autonomous weapons "lowering the barrier of war". However, pro-developers argue that the use of robots will be more stringent in applying laws and guidelines of war, and any ban of robots would be impossible to police.

It's the theme of so many dystopian sci-fi books and movies: a super intelligent machine in charge of lethal military hardware becomes self-aware and decides to wreak havoc. But could it actually happen?

At the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence's annual conference in Texas last month, a workshop was held on the ethics of AI development and a panel discussed whether or not so-called 'lethal autonomous weapons' should be banned.

Hollywood fantasy: The reality of AI development is a little more nuanced and a lot less advanced than movies might have us believe.

"There are many arguments, legal, ethical, political and technical for a ban," Toby Walsh, head of the Optimisation Research Group at Australia's research body NICTA and chair of the proceedings, told Fairfax Media.

"One that particularly appeals to me is that [autonomous weapons] will lower the barrier to war. If one side can launch an attack, without fear of bodies coming home, then it is much easier to slip into battle," Professor Walsh said.