Are We Giving Our Military Machines Too Much Power?, Popular science asks, quoting ICRAC’s Noel Sharkey: As quickly as countries build these systems, they want to deploy them, says Noel Sharkey, a professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at the University of Sheffield in England: “There’s been absolutely no international discussion. It’s all going forward […] Continue Reading

Sunday 21 November 2010, the Observer reports on the technological development in unmanned systems, quoting ICARC’s Noel Sharkey. He … … says it is impossible for autonomous robots today to distinguish reliably between civilians and combatants, a cornerstone of international humanitarian law. He also believes robots lack the subtle judgment to adhere to another humanitarian […] Continue Reading

On Thursday 16 September 2010, the Guardian reports on ICRAC’s meeting in Berlin on the rapid proliferation of military drone planes and armed robots and possible arms control measures to curb this development, quoting ICRAC’s Steve Wright: “We need a new treaty to limit proliferation. All the arms fairs now are selling UAVs. It’s naive […] Continue Reading

The German technology website “heise online” reports on ICRAC’s meeting in Berlin. The full text – in German – of the article can be found here. ICRAC’s Berlin Statement can be found here. Continue Reading

The German weekly news magazine “Der Spiegel” reports on ICRAC’s meeting in Berlin. The full text – in German – of the article can be found here. ICRAC’s Berlin Statement can be found here. Continue Reading

A short piece on how “[t]echnology takes our minds by surprise again”, qoting ICRAC’s Noel Sharkey and touching on the issue that “humans can be held accountable, machines can’t.” The full text of the article can be found here. Continue Reading

27 November 2010, the New York Times reports on ICRAC’s meeting in Berlin. Last month in Germany, an international group including artificial intelligence researchers, arms control specialists, human rights advocates and government officials called for agreements to limit the development and use of tele-operated and autonomous weapons. The group, known as the International Committee for […] Continue Reading

On 7 March 2010, the Austrian “Institut für Religion und Frieden” published an extensive interview with ICARC’s Juergen Altmann. He sums up ICRAC’s critical stance on the recent developments in unmanned systems: We are worried by the accelerating trend to arm uninhabited military vehicles, by the high numbers of non-combatants killed in present US and […] Continue Reading

On 13 February 2010, Allvoices published a piece that discusses why military robotics is on the rise, quoting ICRAC’s Noel Sharkey and also referring to other ICRAC members and their critical stance: There are several reasons why the Department of Defense is shifting its focus away from conventional weapons and towards highly advanced robotic systems. […] Continue Reading

On 30 September 2009, New Scientist reports on Noel Sharkey, Juergen Altmann, Peter Asaro and Rob Sparrow founding ICRAC. A robotics expert, a physicist, a bioethicist and a philosopher have founded the International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC) to campaign for limits on robotic military hardware. Roboticist Noel Sharkey at the University of Sheffield, […] Continue Reading