Let’s regulate autonomous weapons! Etica Funds calls on investors to act
Etica Funds, Italian member of SfC , in collaboration with the international coalition Stop Killer Robots, has issued an urgent call to the global financial community: it’s time to promote international regulation of autonomous weapon systems.
Rising geopolitical tensions are fueling a new technological arms race, characterized by the deployment of emerging military technologies – drones, robots, lasers, and AI-integrated systems. The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence in the military domain is opening complex and deeply troubling scenarios, especially regarding the development and use of autonomous weapons.
Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems
Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems are devices capable of operating without direct human intervention, enabled by a combination of sensors, visual recognition systems, algorithms, and advanced artificial intelligence. Their use raises serious legal, technical, ethical, and strategic concerns.
“Allowing machines to decide over life or death is unacceptable: it means crossing an unbridgeable boundary for humanity”, says Marco Carlizzi, President of Etica Funds. “Every autonomous weapon represents a renunciation of our responsibility and our dignity as human beings. These systems are not just a new generation of armaments: they mark a paradigm shift in the relationship between war, technology, and humanity, with challenges that go beyond the legal dimension”.
What was once limited to experimental use is now a reality on operational battlefields. Yet, there remains no shared international legal definition of an autonomous weapon system—creating a vacuum that leaves critical ethical and humanitarian questions unresolved.
“Allowing machines to decide over life or death is unacceptable: it means crossing an unbridgeable boundary for humanity”, says Marco Carlizzi, President of Etica Funds. “Every autonomous weapon represents a renunciation of our responsibility and our dignity as human beings. These systems are not just a new generation of armaments: they mark a paradigm shift in the relationship between war, technology, and humanity, with challenges that go beyond the legal dimension”.
What was once limited to experimental use is now a reality on operational battlefields. Yet, there remains no shared international legal definition of an autonomous weapon system—creating a vacuum that leaves critical ethical and humanitarian questions unresolved.
The Investor Statement
Against this alarming backdrop, Etica Funds and Stop Killer Robots are urging institutional investors to endorse the Investor Statement—a bold declaration calling on governments worldwide to finalize negotiations without delay for a legally binding international treaty regulating autonomous weapons.
This new treaty must achieve two essential goals:
This new treaty must achieve two essential goals:
- To ban the development and deployment of autonomous weapons capable of selecting and killing human beings without meaningful human control;
- To guarantee meaningful human control over all decisions involving the use of force.
As Carlizzi emphasises, “in a time marked by conflicts that claim civilian lives every day and massacres that weigh on the collective conscience, the use of autonomous weapon systems further amplifies the dehumanisation of war and distances us from any prospect of peace”.
The time to act is now. Investors have a unique role to play in shaping a future where technology serves humanity—not threatens it.
The time to act is now. Investors have a unique role to play in shaping a future where technology serves humanity—not threatens it.
Find out more here.