Autonomous weapons and the new laws of war
A technology that may prove hard to restrain

THE HAROP, a kamikaze drone, bolts from its launcher like a horse out of the gates. But it is not built for speed, nor for a jockey. Instead it just loiters, unsupervised, too high for those on the battlefield below to hear the thin old-fashioned whine of its propeller, waiting for its chance.
This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “Trying to restrain the robots”
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