Leading robot manufacturing companies have promised not to allow their robots to be used as munitions and have encouraged other companies to follow.
In an open letter, six leading enterprises pledged that they would not weaponise technology and explicitly opposed others who are doing so.
The companies that inked the letter included Boston Dynamics, Agility Robotics, ANYbotics, Clearpath Robotics, Open Robotics, and Unitree Robotics.
The letter said that weaponising robots that are extensively available to the public and are ever or autonomously operated “raises new pitfalls of detriment and serious ethical issues”.
The letter suggested a need for new programs to help the abuse of robots, reported Axios.
“We also call on every association, inventor, experimenter, and stoner in the robotics community to make analogous pledges not to make, authorize, support, or enable the attachment of artillery to similar robots,” the letter read.
The letter clarified that the signees didn’t have any issue with “being technologies” but wanted to “help possible weaponisation”.
“The benefits for humanity of these technologies explosively overweigh the threat of abuse,” the letter read.
They added that they were agitated to work “side by side” with robots to deal with the challenges the world faces.
