As it stands, the United Nations has established a Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems within the UN’s Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. There are no specifics on how the UN should proceed with the initiative in the letter, only encouragement to “work hard at finding means to prevent an arms race in these weapons.”

Musk has long warned against the threat posed by artificial intelligence. In 2014, he called it mankind’s “biggest existential threat.” Many technology leaders believe AI will not only improve our day-to-day lives by making certain tasks easier, but will have a similar effect on warfare.

For example, a group or nation which possesses the ability to launch autonomous drones against a rival or enemy that does not possess a similar capability will face much less risk, and thereby be encouraged to initiate hostilities.

The doomsday scenarios are easy to imagine. Automated, industrialized warfare has long been prophesied as a dystopian future in literature and movies, where in the ultimate irony, machines built by man to make life easier, cause man to face extinction at the hands of his creations.

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