More than 100 leading artificial intelligence experts are calling on the United Nations to prevent the development and use of killer robots.

In an open letter to the UN published Monday, a group of 116 robotics specialists — including Tesla's Elon Musk and Google's Mustafa Suleyman — urged the organization to take action against "weapons of terror."

"Once developed, lethal autonomous weapons will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend," the letter said.

"These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways," the letter added.