Denise Garcia (PhD Political Science ’06) is a member of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control and the Academic Council of the United Nations.

This April, nations will join together at the United Nations in Geneva to hold formal talks on “lethal autonomous weapons systems,” also known as “killer robots,” under the auspices of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.

Lethal autonomous robotic weapons are systems that, once programmed and activated, can choose targets without further human intervention. While such weapons do not yet exist, it appears that some militaries and police have begun to see these systems as their best option for waging war, ensuring national defense, and police enforcement.

The United States and many other countries are working to develop killer robots, along with additional autonomous weapons, and might be able to do so in the not-so-distant future. Prototypes are already in place. The loss of effective human control in waging war, and thus the loss of humanity, is a real possibility.

How can globally-agreed norms be created and strengthened in all areas of autonomous weapons production, use, and proliferation to safeguard future generations from the scourge of violence? This question is particularly pressing in regards to emerging technologies. Due to the many complex ethical, legal, security, and moral implications of these weapons, states, non-state entities, researchers, and activists find themselves in two camps.

See full article in Ethics and International Affairs.

Denise Garcia  holds a Master and a PhD in Political Science from the Graduate Institute that she respectively got in 1999 and 2006. She is the Sadeleer Research Faculty and associate professor in the Department of Political Science and the International Affairs program at Northeastern University in Boston, Member of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control and the Academic Council of the United Nations.

Denise Garcia in Geneva with current Graduate Institute students.