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Saturday, November 22, 2008
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UPDATE: Terminator rising: Killer military robot arms race under way

Can it be that the Terminator movies were right and robots will consume the Earth? Seems that's what one researcher thinks at least. We are beginning to see the first steps towards an international robot arms race and it may not be long before robots become a standard terrorist weapon to replace the suicide bomber, according to professor Noel Sharkey, from the Royal United Services Institute Department of Computer Science.

WHAT'S NEW?: Sharkey isn't the only one worried about killer robots. The anti-landmine group in London called Landmine Action wants a ban on any robots capable of killing people. The group says robots can fall under the same category as landmines -- which are outlawed in 150 countries -- and is pressing governments to keep control in the hands of a human operator, according to an Engadget report. "Our concern is that humans, not sensors, should make targeting decisions. So similarly, we don't want to move towards robots that make decisions about combatants and noncombatants," said spokesman Richard Moyes.

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