Our lives are becoming increasingly automated - from smart homes and targeted advertising to self-service at passport controls. Technologies such as facial recognition and many other forms of artificial intelligence have been introduced quietly and are gradually being integrated into our everyday lives, bringing both positive and negative consequences for people around the world. 

At the most extreme end of this spectrum of growing automation are autonomous weapons, or “killer robots” - drones or other weapons capable of killing without human control. Today, these weapons are developing rapidly, not least on the battlefields of Ukraine, even as the world debates how to regulate such technological autonomy. 

Meaningful human control should be central to our relationship with new technologies and the role they play in our lives. The risks are clear: autonomous weapons dehumanize people by reducing us to data to be processed. We must value human beings - in all our complexity and humanity - and that is why regulating autonomous weapons is so important.