Stop Killer Robots

Turning abstract ethics into lived experience. In partnership with Amnesty International and the Stop Killer Robots campaign, we designed an immersive, multi-format project that brought the complex issue of autonomous weapons to life. Through a blend of experiential storytelling, ethical inquiry, and data visualisation, we created a space where public feeling could be translated into meaningful advocacy—making the case for urgent regulation through visceral connection.

Key outcomes

1 immersive experience hosted at Amnesty HQ
33 public participants across age, gender, and ethnicity
16 moral dilemmas explored through embodied decision-making
3 short-form social films shared by Amnesty and campaign partners

Challenge and approach

Challenge
As the global debate around autonomous weapons intensified, Amnesty needed to humanise a deeply technical issue that wasn’t landing with the public. The ethical stakes were high, but traditional messaging wasn’t cutting through. They sought a new approach, one that could make abstract concerns feel personal, provoke thought, and generate usable data in the process.

Approach
We designed a one-night-only immersive experience that placed participants inside a series of ethical dilemmas relating to the use of autonomous weapons. Guided by Amnesty’s lead AI researcher, participants faced 16 rapid-fire moral questions, forced to respond with binary choices (yes or no) each tied to real-world implications of killer robot deployment. Using sound design, set dressing, and depersonalising boiler suits, we crafted a dystopian environment where human complexity collided with machine logic. The visceral experience was captured through a combination of overhead tracking, ground-level cameras, and post-event vox-pops, resulting in both an animation film and a suite of short social videos.

Watch and listen now:

Impact

This experiment sparked powerful conversations both in the room and online. Over 30 people from diverse backgrounds engaged deeply with the issue, confronting uncomfortable questions and challenging their own assumptions. In place of a static survey, the experience generated emotional data: footage that captured not just choices, but hesitation, conviction, and conflict. These moments were transformed into short films that added a human face to a global campaign, helping Amnesty and Stop Killer Robots reframe the narrative, bringing the future of war into urgent, relatable focus.

Verity Coyle I Senior Advisor/Campaigner I Amnesty International

"“This is a really innovative idea. Hopefully, by visually illustrating the difficult choices that people have to make, we can make an impact on governments' judgments about which decisions they delegate to robots.”"