Bullektin of the Atomic Scientists: Debating a Ban

	Debating a Ban
	In July 2015, physicist Stephen Hawking, who serves on the Bulletin's Board of Sponsors, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and many researchers in artificial intelligence signed an open letter to the United Nations, calling on the UN to ban the development and use of autonomous weapons. That letter echoes arguments made since 2013 by the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, which views autonomous weapons as "a fundamental challenge to the protection of civilians and to … international human rights and humanitarian law." But in a roundtable scheduled to close this week, authors from Brazil, India, and the United States show that support for a ban is not unanimous. Would deployed autonomous weapons promote or detract from civilian safety? And is an outright ban the proper response to development of autonomous weapons? Join in the conversation as we wrap up the third and final round of this debate. Round 1: Autonomous weapons and the curse of history, by Paulo E. Santos Autonomous weapons: Tightrope balance, by Monika Chansoria Banning and regulating autonomous weapons, by Heather Roff Round 2: Autonomous and unaccountable, by Paulo E. Santos Autonomous weapons and the arduous search for civilian safety, by Monika Chansoria Autonomous weapons: Not just smarter smart bombs, by Heather Roff Round 3: Banning autonomous weapons: Impractical and ineffective, by Paulo E. Santos Autonomous weapons: Useful if well regulated, by Monika Chansoria Distinguishing autonomous from automatic weapons, by Heather Roff