Killer Robots Could Destroy Humanity (So Let's Stop That From Happening, OK?)

Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking joined with hundreds of scientists and other concerned citizens to sign a letter calling for a worldwide ban on autonomous weapons. The letter was shared yesterday at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Buenos Aires.

It may sound like science fiction, but researchers are concerned that these robots, unlike drones, operate on their own, without human direction and could set off a global arms race unlike any seen since the Cold War.

Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson talks with Toby Walsh, a professor of artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales in Australia, about the effort to ban robots with a license to kill.