The European Parliament on Wednesday passed a resolution calling for an international ban on the development, production and use of "killer robots" — weapons that kill without a human deciding to fire.
Autonomous weapons are machines programmed to select and attack targets using artificial intelligence, without human control. Opponents fear they could become dangerous in a cyber-attack or as a result of a mistake in their programming.
"I know that this might look like a debate about some distant future or about science fiction. It's not," Federica Mogherini, the EU chief of foreign and security policy, said during a debate in parliament on Tuesday.