Officials urge ban on ‘killer robots’ before it’s too late

Armies of Terminator-like warriors fan out across the battlefield, destroying everything in their path, as swarms of fellow robots rain fire from the skies.

That dark vision could all too easily shift from science fiction to fact, with disastrous consequences for the human race, unless such weapons are banned before they leap from the drawing board to the arsenal, campaigners warn.

Yesterday, governments began the first-ever talks on so-called lethal autonomous weapons systems — though opponents prefer the label “killer robots”.