[Tip of the hat to KurzweilAI.net]

One of the topics I covered in my presentation on "Nanotechnology and the Future of Warfare" at the recent World Future Society conference was, you guessed it, robotics. I mentioned that it was only a matter of time until unmanned automated roving machines -- robots -- would be armed with weapons and deployed in battle. I knew they were in development but I did not realize how quickly my prediction would come true.

Here is the story from Wired's "Danger Room" blog:

Robots have been roaming the streets of Iraq since shortly after the war began. Now, for the first time -- the first time in any warzone -- the machines are carrying guns.

After years of development, three "special weapons observation remote reconnaissance direct action system" (SWORDS) robots have deployed to Iraq, armed with M249 machine guns. The 'bots "haven't fired their weapons yet," Michael Zecca, the SWORDS program manager, tells DANGER ROOM. "But that'll be happening soon."

Note that these robots are not fully autonomous: they are "remotely controlled by a soldier through a terminal."

It seems only a matter of time, though, and perhaps not much time at that, until the 'problems' of comparatively slow human decision-making will lead to the next step -- turning over the fire command to an AI program.

How soon might that be? And what sort of ethical debates will then be triggered?

Stick around, because we're likely to learn the answers before long.