Briefing | Restraining the robots

Autonomous weapons and the new laws of war

A technology that may prove hard to restrain

|SALISBURY PLAIN, STOCKHOLM AND WASHINGTON, DC

THE HAROP, a kamikaze drone, bolts from its launcher like a horse out of the gates. But it is not built for speed, nor for a jockey. Instead it just loiters, unsupervised, too high for those on the battlefield below to hear the thin old-fashioned whine of its propeller, waiting for its chance.

This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “Trying to restrain the robots”

The mother of all messes

From the January 19th 2019 edition

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