Featured Image: Actroid-DER, developed by KOKORO Inc for customer service, appeared in the 2005 Expo Aichi Japan. The robot responds to commands in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and English. CREDIT: Gnsin SOURCE: Wikipedia Commons (This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license).

By hPlus Magazine  By Lochlan Bloom.  Published: June 3, 2013

The recent U.N call for a moratorium on the development of remotely controlled weapon systems has raised some interesting issues and debate. While the tone of the announcement by U.N Special Rapporteur, Christof Heyns, rather dryly refers to LARs or lethal autonomous robots the story was then picked up by numerous news sites with headlines pitting killer robots against the U.N.

The subject of intelligent machines and what they mean for humanity is open to much interpretation but the majority of opinion often seems to suggest a rather dysoptian future. From serious academic papers – War in the age of intelligent machines to widespread blockbuster entertainment –Terminator Salvation – the picture painted is not too rosy. While there are some commentators that suggest machines will be our wise, helpful companions, using their superior brain power simply to ease our lives, this is not the default position. . . . Read Complete Report