The Daily Star's FREE newsletter is spectacular! Sign up today for the best stories straight to your inbox Sign up today! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Dr Ian Pearson, an ex-cybernetics engineer, says our species risks a future "robot uprising".

The futurologist said manufacturers who do not follow guidelines risk leaving robots to turn against us.

He told Daily Star Online: "Military robots obviously would be able to kill people, but only a few.

"To be an existential threat, there would need to be many millions of them that have become a threat without anyone noticing, and that seems unlikely.

"Although again, it assumes a modicum of intelligence in regulation.

"Robots plus online AI is a different threat. Online AI could possibly shut down or sabotage human defences while turning our defences on ourselves in coordination with a robot uprising.

(Image: GETTY)

"Possible, but hopefully unlikely."

Commenting on the likelihood of his warning, he added: "Only if regulators are stupid and allow them to be superhuman or to access superhuman powers.

"On the other hand, our regulators often are stupid."

Dr Pearson’s comments come amid growing calls from campaigners to regulate robots to prevent them becoming fully autonomous.

Group Campaign to Stop Killer Robots (CSKR) is pushing for laws to prevent the use of any autonomous weaponry, and that includes robot soldiers.

(Image: GETTY)

(Image: GETTY)

But its members say the world’s leading nations are pressing ahead with the development of their technology at an alarming rate.

Earlier this month, Dr Pearson also warned of how robots could be deployed as assassins or used for espionage by malicious individuals and organisations.

But terrifyingly, he said such robots could change their appearance only moments after to conceal the crime and leave the police unable to trace the culprit.

He told us: "Problems could arise such as robots used in crimes and not identifiable.

"Because their robot appearance could easily be changed to conceal them afterwards, or used in identity fraud, or espionage by pretending to be someone else."

And last year Ben Donaldson, a CSKR campaigner, told us: "We are on the brink of a new generation of weapons systems that can kill people without meaningful human control.

"Much of the technology is already out there. Autonomy is creeping into weapons systems which are either deployed or about to be deployed.

"From South Korean sentry guns which can automatically identify and attack soldiers to Israel's Harop, which is a loitering bomb that can identify, select and strike moving targets without human oversight."