United Nations is hosting a four-day summit about 'killer robots'
Eric Thayer/Getty Images

Apparently nervous that the completely fictional movie Transformers could suddenly happen in real life, the United Nations is hosting a four-day session to prevent a nightmare scenario in which killer robots take control of the world.
Starting today in Geneva, the U.N. is discussing "lethal autonomous robots" in hopes of preventing such a barbaric scenario from ever occurring. Steve Goose, an official from the Human Rights Watch, seems to be the most concerned about machines turning against us. "Killer robots would threaten the most fundamental of rights and principles in international law," he said. "We don't see how these inanimate machines could understand or respect the value of life, yet they would have the power to determine when to take it away."
Although this might sound like crazy talk, autonomous robots like drones are becoming increasingly commonplace on the battlefield. Experts predict militaries will produce machines that are trained to kill without human handlers within the next 20 years, leaving opponents scared what could happen if the U.N. doesn't take action now.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.
-
Musk chatbot Grok praises Hitler on X
Speed Read Grok made antisemitic comments and referred to itself as 'MechaHitler'
-
Disney, Universal sue AI firm over 'plagiarism'
Speed Read The studios say that Midjourney copied characters from their most famous franchises
-
Amazon launches 1st Kuiper internet satellites
Speed Read The battle of billionaires continues in space
-
Test flight of orbital rocket from Europe explodes
Speed Read Isar Aerospace conducted the first test flight of the Spectrum orbital rocket, which crashed after takeoff
-
Apple pledges $500B in US spending over 4 years
Speed Read This is a win for Trump, who has pushed to move manufacturing back to the US
-
Microsoft unveils quantum computing breakthrough
Speed Read Researchers say this advance could lead to faster and more powerful computers
-
TikTok's fate uncertain as weekend deadline looms
Speed Read The popular app is set to be banned in the U.S. starting Sunday
-
Appeals court kills FCC net neutrality rule
Speed Read A U.S. appeals court blocked Biden's effort to restore net-neutrality rules