United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has renewed his push for a legally binding international treaty to prohibit the development and use of fully autonomous weapons systems. These systems, colloquially known as 'killer robots,' are capable of selecting and engaging targets without direct human intervention. Guterres has consistently argued that the prospect of machines making life-or-death decisions on the battlefield is morally repugnant and poses a severe threat to international stability.

Proponents of a ban, including various humanitarian organizations and arms control advocates, echo the Secretary-General’s concerns, citing the potential for algorithmic bias, technical malfunctions, and the lowering of the threshold for entering armed conflicts. They contend that accountability becomes impossible when a machine, rather than a human, is responsible for a lethal strike.

Conversely, some nations and defense contractors argue that autonomous systems could potentially reduce civilian casualties by increasing precision and removing human soldiers from harm's way. Critics of a total ban suggest that existing international humanitarian law is sufficient to govern the use of such technology and that a blanket prohibition would stifle innovation in defensive capabilities. While the UN has held several rounds of discussions on the matter through the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), progress toward a formal, binding treaty remains slow due to disagreements among major military powers regarding the scope and definition of 'autonomy' in weaponry.