Ignoring calls to ban autonomous weapons is unfortunately the only rational course of action. Nuclear development could be prevented because it's easy to detect

Ignoring calls to ban autonomous weapons is unfortunately the only rational course of action. Nuclear development could be prevented because it's easy to detect, thus making the NPT workable. Even cluster bomb bans are workable because they're single-use. It's very difficult to detect development of autonomous weapons in a way that would stick in the international he-said-she-said game, until they're deployed in the field, by which point it's already too late. The costs of a hostile power developing a decisive advantage is too high. It's unfortunate that this puts us on a possible path to self-replicating AI war bots and an endless war between two robot armies with nobody left alive at the helm, but the alternative is asking people to leave themselves vulnerable to invasion and subjugation, which simply won't fly.