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China is selling its most advanced “fully autonomous” military drones with fears that it could lead to a bloodbath in the Middle East.

The Asian superpower is reportedly selling AI-enhanced combat drones to the region, with potentially disastrous consequences.

Prof Toby Walsh, of the University of NSW, in Australia, said: “They would be impossible to defend yourself against.

“Once the shooting starts, every human on the battlefield will be dead.”

(Image: Supplied)

US Defence Sec Mark Esper has said that China is selling drones programmed to decide themselves who lives or dies.

He told a conference on Artificial Intelligence: “As we speak, the Chinese government is already exporting some of its most advanced military aerial drones to the Middle East as it prepares to export its next generation stealth UAVs when those come online.

“In addition, Chinese weapons manufacturers are selling drones advertised as capable of full autonomy including the ability to conduct lethal, targeted strikes.”

An Australian outlet, news.com.au, reports that a state controlled Chinese defence company is negotiating the sale of its Blowfish A3 armed helicopter drone to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Dr Malcolm Davis, an Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst says that it is not strange there is no debate over the sales in China.

He reportedly said: “This isn’t a surprise.

(Image: Supplied)

“Authoritarian adversaries do not need to conduct the same domestic debate on lethal autonomous weapons as western liberal democracies, because they are not answerable to their people.

“There is no ‘ban killer robots’ movement in China or Russia. The regimes are simply developing and deploying the weapons – and in this case - exporting them to similar regimes in the Middle East.”

The US military though are planning an ethics code for Artificial Intelligence use.

Western countries are planning to tackle the “killer robots” with unmanned systems which humans can override.

Dr Davis said: “While we will ensure our unmanned systems have humans ‘on the loop’ with political oversight into use, it is quite possible that our adversaries will equip with fully autonomous lethal systems.

“That could give them an advantage in a future war.”