The US military is reportedly planning to sink approximately $4 billion into the development of "ethical" robots.

Colin Allen, a British robotics expert at Indiana University, has been asked by the US Navy to advise them on building robots that do not violate the Geneva Conventions.

"The question they want answered is whether we can build automated weapons that would conform to the laws of war. Can we use ethical theory to help design these machines?" Allen told the Telegraph.

Although Allen later claimed the Telegraph had "greatly exaggerated" the scope of his role on the project, he conceeded that the story "successfully captured why we need to be thinking about these ethical issues now".

According to Ronald Arkin of the Georgia Institute of Technology, robots were capable of performing "more ethically than human soldiers." Arkin explained that robots could easily function without negative emotions that adversely affect human battlefield judgement.

It should be noted that advanced military drones and robots are currently controlled remotely by human handlers. However, researchers are attempting to develop software "soldier bots" capable of automatically identifying targets and weapons. In addition, the bots would be designed to distinguish between tanks, armed men, ambulances and civilians.

Nevertheless, Noel Sharkey of Sheffield University has expressed concern over taking humans completely out of the loop. According to Sharkey, the concept of a robot granted the authority to decide whether or not to kill an individual was "terrifying". X

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