Summary
Armies of Terminator-like warriors fan out across the battlefield, destroying everything in their path, as swarms of fellow robots rain fire from the skies.
Governments Tuesday began the first-ever talks exclusively on so-called "lethal autonomous weapons systems" – though opponents prefer the label "killer robots".
That was echoed by the International Committee of the Red Cross, guardian of the Geneva Conventions on warfare.
The four-day meeting in Geneva aims to chart the path toward more in-depth talks in November.
Perhaps closest to the Terminator-type killing machine is a Samsung sentry robot used in South Korea, with the ability to spot unusual activity, talk to intruders and, when authorized by a human controller, shoot them.
It's the next step, the power to kill without a human handler, that rattles opponents the most.
Experts predict that military research could produce such killers within 20 years.
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