Redazione RHC : 16 July 2025 07:13
China has called for an urgent ethical and legal review of the military’s use of humanoid robots, the South China Morning Post reports, citing the Chinese military’s official newspaper, the PLA Daily. According to the publication’s authors, the daily and widespread use of such machines could lead to “indiscriminate killings and accidental deaths,” which would cause not only moral condemnation but also legal consequences. Humanoid combat vehicles, according to the authors of the article Yuan Yi, Ma Ye, and Yue Shiguang, are currently the most “humanized” weapons and therefore require special regulation.
The authors point out that such machines already violate the first of Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics: “A robot may not injure a human being, or by inaction allow a human being to come to harm.” In their view, these moral guidelines need to be revised in light of technological developments. The new approach should be based on the principles of subordination to humans, respect for humans, and protection of humans.
Robots must be able to limit the use of force, stop attacks when necessary, and not cause indiscriminate damage. This, the text emphasizes, is particularly important for compliance with international norms, including the laws of war.
The main advantage of these vehicles is considered to be the presence of arms and the high maneuverability when using the equipment, which allows them to perform tasks inaccessible to other unmanned systems. These include mine clearance, maintenance, evacuation of the wounded, and work in harsh conditions.
However, humanoids still have significant limitations: low speed, poor environmental adaptability, high price, and technological complexity of implementation. Even if widely deployed, they will not replace other unmanned platforms, but only complement them.
This is not the first PLA Daily publication on the topic of army robotization. In May, the newspaper noted that humanoid machines are capable of “redefining humanity’s understanding of the future of warfare.” At the time, their ability to make decisions autonomously based on artificial intelligence algorithms and to carry out combat missions without human participation was highlighted.
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