Robots and War Crimes

At a conference this month, a panel of technologists will work through the ethical and legal implications of whether a robot can be held responsible for war crimes. The discussion, titled "When Robots Commit War Crimes: Autonomous Weapons and Human Responsibility," is part of the Technology in Wartime conference at the Stanford Law School.

The io9 blog, edited by Annalee Newitz, today pointed out that this question isn’t some academic exercise for eggheads; robot weapons have already been involved in friendly fire incidents, including one in South Africa.