"It is an appropriate time to consider the risks of such weapons systems and to make sure we understand fully what might constitute misuse as well as legitimate use of emerging technologies."

The Terminator movies imagined a future where killer robots posed a threat to humanity: some warn that the threat is real.

The Geneva meeting is the third gathering on artificially intelligent weapons held by the UN's disarmament branch. Last year, some of the world's most prominent scientists and technology entrepreneurs including physicist Stephen Hawking, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak signed a letter warning about the dangers of autonomous weapons, which they said would be technologically feasible "within years, not decades".

The Australian statement to the UN meeting on Monday said the world still had "some way to go" in agreeing whether there should be limits on autonomy given to weapons systems such as aerial drones and, if so, how to create and enforce global rules.

"We should not underestimate the complexity of this task … As an international community, we remain some way from common understandings and universal acceptance of the potential use of [lethal autonomous weapons systems], and a long way from being able to set enforceable standards for their use," it said.