As a soldier runs from the battlefield, he's spotted by a suicide drone loitering in the sky overhead.
The killing machine dives down on its target and explodes in a kamikaze attack – without anyone telling it to.
It might sound like the stuff of science fiction but killer robots, sometimes called "slaughterbots", are already a reality.
Last year, STM Kargu-2 drones hunted down targets in what might be the first instance of artificial intelligence killing on its own initiative.
The revelation came after years of experts warning about the dangers of letting machines decide who lives and dies in combat.
Now a UN conference on so-called Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) is taking place in Geneva to create new international regulations to stop killer robots being allowed to make their own decisions.
Smart sentry guns
Used by: South Korea, Israel
Deadliest feature: 1,000 rounds of machine gun fire per minute
Machine guns capable of identifying and killing their own targets have existed for at least a decade.
Samsung's arms division developed a sentry gun, the SGR-A1, which uses image recognition to identify humans and shoot at them...
Suicide drones
Used by: At least 14 countries including the US, China, and Germany
Deadliest feature: Built-in explosive warheads
Suicide drones are like extremely sophisticated – and extremely scary – missiles.
Instead of going straight to a specific target after being fired, these so-called "loitering munitions" stalk the skies over a specific area.
While loitering, which could go on for hours, they scan the ground in search of a target.
Once found, they attack by speeding to the ground and exploding, hence why they're also sometimes called "kamikaze" drones...
Drone 'swarms'
Used by: UK, Israel, US
Deadliest feature: Thousands of killing machines working in unison
When thousands of drones use AI to work together, they can pull off spectacularly complex formations without the need for thousands of pilots.
A swarm of 1,800 drones flying in unison was used to make a mind-blowing illuminated globe at the Olympic opening ceremony in Tokyo in July.
But in the same month, drone swarms were also thought to have been used in battle for the first time.
Public awareness and coverage of police militarization has largely focused on the acquisition of military equipment by police, such as armored vehicles, aircraft, and weapons. Since the early 1990s, the Department of Defense’s 1033 program has provided local law enforcement agencies access to military-grade equipment. This program, now expanded by President Trump after President Obama attempted to limit its use, allows local law enforcement agencies to receive excess Department of Defense equipment that would otherwise be destroyed because it was no longer useful to the military. Over 8,000 law enforcement agencies have utilized the 1033 program to access more than $6 billion worth of military equipment such as night-vision goggles, machine guns, armored vehicles, bayonets, grenade launchers, and military aircraft. Other items that can be accessed by local law enforcement agencies through the program include field packs, canteens, sleeping bags, and ponchos. LINK
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