A bill proposed in Massachusetts last September to ban the manufacturing and sale of armed robots continues to stand out due to the lack of legislation on the subject in the United States and around the world.
Earlier this week, Massachusetts State Representative Lindsay Sabadosa spoke with a US media reporter TechCrunch on this subject, in order to explain what purpose such a law would serve to ban what some call “killer robots”.
Thus, the law would prohibit the sale to the public of robots equipped with weapons, but also the use of such robots to harass or attack anyone.
The goal of this law “is to prevent normal people from trying to use robots as weapons, not to prevent the very good use of robots that is already being done,” she clarified.
As a result, the law would rather aim to ensure the legitimacy of robots already produced by companies like Boston Dynamics, based in Massachusetts, rather than to slow down the development of the technology.
These robots would already be used or being integrated by law enforcement as well as emergency services, such as firefighters, in their operations.
“People using (Boston Dynamics robot dogs) to hunt by attaching guns to them or something like that — We don’t want to see that,” the state representative explained to the media.
The law still hasn’t passed in Massachusetts, but this type of legislation will become increasingly common in the current climate, according to Ms. Sabadosa.
In Canada, the use of such weapons has been questioned and debated since 2014.
The use of smart weapons is an active debate in the United States and around the world as the United Nations calls for “protecting humanity” from “killer robots” and banning such weapons from here 2026, on October 6.
