Stop Killer Robots will soon premier Immoral Code, a 23-minute documentary that contemplates the impact of killer robots in an increasingly automated world—one where machines decide who to kill or what to destroy. The film premieres in London on 19 May 2022 (by invitation only), and it will be available for online streaming on the film’s website starting 24 May. As a member of the Stop Killer Robots coalition, SGI has joined a group of organizations to support the documentary’s launch and promotion, along with Amnesty International, Mines Action Canada, and Article 36.

Immoral Code examines whether there are situations where it is morally and socially acceptable to take life—and, importantly, would a computer know the difference? Life and death decisions are not black and white, on or off, ones and zeroes. They are complex and difficult. Reducing these decisions to automated processes raises many moral, ethical, legal, technical and security concerns.

To demonstrate this point, the film poses a series of increasingly complex moral questions to participants of a social study—a group of everyday people with varied life experiences—and asks them to make binary decisions: yes or no. In parallel, through a series of interviews with experts, the documentary delves deeper into each of the subjects it raises, looking closely at these technical and moral issues and their relationship to a loss of human control, to automated decision making and to autonomous weapon systems.

Ultimately, members of Stop Killer Robots intend the documentary to act as a call on states to launch negotiations on new international law that will ensure meaningful human control over the use of force.

We invite everyone to watch the film and sign the petition: www.stopkillerrobots.org/now