At a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC, scientists advocated a ban on weaponized artificial intelligence (AI), arguing that malfunctioning AI weapons systems could result in civilian casualties and other disaster scenarios.

The statements echo the goal of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, an initiative calling for a global treaty to ban the development and use of autonomous weapons. The campaign is so far supported by 89 non-governmental organisations from 50 countries. Mary Wareham of Human Rights Watch, one of the organizations behind the campaign, explained that the focus is not on science-fiction scenarios like “walking, talking terminator robots that are about to take over the world,” but instead on preventing “much more imminent: conventional weapons systems with autonomy”.

Read more: Call to ban killer robots in wars