Take a Predator drone. This is a semi-autonomous weapon. It can fly itself much of the time. However, there is still a soldier, typically in a container in Nevada, in over all control. And importantly, it is still a soldier who makes the final life-or-death decision to fire one of its Hellfire missiles. But it is a small technical step to replace that soldier with a computer. Indeed, it is technically possible today. And once we build such simple autonomous weapons, there will be an arms race to develop more and more sophisticated versions.- The Economic Times