On Thursday, an analysis in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Daily said that the military should conduct “ethical and legal research” on humanoid robots to “avoid moral pitfalls”.
The article was signed by Yuan Yi, Ma Ye and Yue Shiguang, but the newspaper did not specify their affiliations.
The authors cited American science fiction writer Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, saying that militarised humanoid robots “clearly violate” the first law, which states that a robot “may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm”. They added that Asimov’s laws must be amended.
They said that humanoid robots in military scenarios should comply with the main principles of the laws of war by “obeying humans”, “respecting humans” and “protecting humans”.
