Robotics expert Noel Sharkey, Professor at University of Sheffield, believes that computer-supported weapons are becoming more and more important in the wars
and battle against terrorism. "Killing has never been so easy," he said at the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in Bonn on June 4. The scientist said that unmanned
airborne artillery and robotic vehicles equipped with machine guns are on the advance.

Sharkey said that the American government is planning on spending billions of dollars
this year to further develop computer-based weapons. He went on to say that other
countries like Israel, China and Turkey are also interested in the technology. Sharkey
believes that the advantages for government are obvious: lower costs, fewer personnel, fewer soldiers killed in battle. "But we have to be careful and need strict rules," he said. "Otherwise, robots will one day be deciding who should be killed where and when."

The physicist Jürgen Altmann and Hans Jürgen Kreowski, an IT professor at the University of Bremen, talked more about the ethical principles behind computersupported weapons. "Killer robots, unmanned vehicles and autonomous weapons can't operate ethically. That's why it's dangerous and irresponsible to develop and use them," Kreowski said.

June 4, 2009
Deutsche Welle