The risk of the emergence of "robotic killers" is higher than ever and people need to take this threat seriously, say leading experts in robotics and computer systems.

More than a hundred experts, including engineer and entrepreneur Ilon Mask, in a letter to the UN warn of a possible "third revolution in armaments" and are called upon to take steps to prevent the development of "robot killers".

Experts are convinced that the deadly technology of autonomous weapons controlled by intelligent machines (AI / AI) is a "Pandora's box that once opened, it will be impossible to close" and that there is very little time left to prevent this.

"If it is developed, it will allow to conduct much more extensive, than ever, armed conflicts in such terms that people can not imagine," says the appeal signed by 116 experts.

"It can become a weapon of terror, a weapon that despots and terrorists can use against innocent populations, weapons that have been hacked with horrendous intentions," is written in circulation.

Experts urge the United Nations to classify these morally harmful technologies as weapons prohibited by the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.

Together with the creator of Tesla and SpaceX Ilon Mask, the letter was signed by Mustafa Suleiman, one of the creators of Google-owned company DeepMind, and Igor Kuznetsov, founder and head of the Russian company NaviRobot, and Alexey Yuzhakov and Oleg Kivokurtsev, the founders of the Russian company Promobot.

On Monday, a meeting of an ad hoc group of government experts to the UN on autonomous weapons was due, but it was postponed to November, as follows from a report on the website.

The experts wrote in this letter: "We are very sorry that the first meeting of the group of government experts that was to take place today has been canceled because a number of members have not made their financial contribution to the UN. Therefore, we call upon the High Contracting Parties to redouble their efforts at their first meeting, which is now scheduled for November ".

The potential ban on the development of technology "robotic assassins" was previously discussed in various UN committees.

In 2015, for example, more than a thousand scientists, experts and inventors wrote a letter, which also contained a warning about the danger that carries a self-contained weapon. His signatures were then put by the English physicist Stephen Hawking, one of the founders of Apple Steve Wozniak and Ilon Mask.

The killer robot is a completely autonomous type of weapon that can choose and pursue goals without human guidance. While those do not exist, however, the development of technologies brings the moment when it can become a reality.

Those who advocate the creation of such machines argue that the current international laws are sufficient to cope with any problem that could potentially arise from the use of this type of weapons.

They believe that a moratorium or ban should be introduced when it becomes absolutely clear that the situation has gotten out of control.

However, opponents say that such weapons are a threat to humanity, and any autonomously existing system capable of killing should be banned.

BBC.