So if one corporation, let's say Skynet, built an autonomous killer robot and sold it to any interested government, who would be responsible? Is Skynet suddenl

So if one corporation, let's say Skynet, built an autonomous killer robot and sold it to any interested government, who would be responsible? Is Skynet suddenly responsible for the outcome of every situation the robots are placed in? What about the secondhand robot market? Are the governments who own the bots responsible? Are the governments responsible for errors? If your car's brakes get stuck and you hurt someone, isn't the manufacturer responsible? If a gun you own misfires due to a defect, wouldn't the manufacturer be responsible? To me it seems that autonomous warbots are going to put the world in a tighter MAD bind. If X has killer robots, Y better have killer robots or strongly align themselves with X. To break this down further in a sort of visual way: - Agents involved in a bot-involved death -- Operator -- Owner -- Manufacturer -- Programmer/Engineer -- Government representatives -- Victim -- Represented populace What would make sense to me is that the represented pressure their representatives to regulate manufacturers in terms of sales and safety controls. If a sale is found to be by regulation then the manufacturer should be less liable, presuming their programmers and engineers followed safety regulations. If the sale is valid, then the operator should be responsible, otherwise the manufacturer is responsible as well. In the case of malfunction, the manufacturer should be held responsible along with individual engineers and programmers. If the malfunction was due to a gap in regulatory strictures, then the government responsible for the regulation, along with the manufacturer, should be held responsible. See? Easy.