The United Nations on Thursday declared that the production and use of advanced technology producing high-end machines and fully autonomous robot systems sans any human command should be immediately stopped.
In a Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, United Nations special rapporteur Christof Heynes said, "A decision to allow machines to be deployed to kill human beings worldwide, whatever weapons they use, deserves a collective pause," adding, "War without reflection is mechanical slaughter."
Speaking on the fringes of the rigorous defence experiments in major countries, Heynes said in an interview to New York Times, "My concern is that we may find ourselves on the other side of a line, and then it is very difficult to go back."
"If there's ever going to be a time to regulate or stop these weapons, it's now."
The UN warning comes at a time when major nations like US, South Korea, Britain and Israel are known to be developing such defence technologies which could very well lead to an adverse effect.
The report submitted on lethal autonomous robotics and technology to the council said the concern was "about the protection of life during war and peace," as the questions point to "whether robots will make it easier for states to go to war."
Elaborating on the hazards Heyns said, "The traditional approach is that there is a warrior, and there is a weapon but what we now see is that the weapon becomes the warrior, the weapon takes the decision itself," reported BBC.
The UN's call for a halt in the production of such lethal robot technologies is seen as an early initiative to answer queries sought by several human rights groups but it is still to be seen whether the stay on such fatal machinery reamins permanent or not.
