Killer robots are here. What should we do with them?

The United Nations' Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons is meeting in Geneva this week to discuss the future of lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs) — technology more colloquially known as killer robots. Specifically under consideration are robots that can make their own decisions about who to kill independent of human direction.

Though hardly as advanced as the robots of science fiction, LAWs already exist. In fact, they're employed by South Korea in the demilitarized zone bordering North Korea. There, a robot made by Samsung can independently identify and shoot human targets as far as 2.5 miles away.

While the Pentagon is working to develop autonomous drones because of their comparatively low cost and risk factors, tech experts and human rights advocates are encouraging the United Nations to preemptively regulate LAW use before killer robots become more widespread. Physicist Stephen Hawking famously warned that uncontrolled artificial intelligence could "spell the end of the human race," while Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has likened LAW use to a dangerous incantation.

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"You know all those stories where there's the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, and it's like yeah, he's sure he can control the demon," Musk said. "Doesn't work out."