Loitering munitions: flagging an urgent need for legally binding rules for autonomy in weapon systems

June 29, 2023 10 mins read Analysis / Artificial Intelligence and Armed Conflict / Autonomous Weapons / New Technologies / Weapons Ingvild Bode & Tom F.A. Watts

Earlier this month, a viral story alleged that a US Air Force simulation took place ...

Three lessons on the regulation of autonomous weapons systems to ensure accountability for violations of IHL

March 2, 2023 11 mins read Analysis / Autonomous Weapons / Humanitarian Action / Law and Conflict / New Technologies Vincent Boulanin & Marta Bo

States have agreed on the principle that machines cannot be held accountable for violations of ...

Autonomous weapon systems: what the law says – and does not say – about the human role in the use of force

November 11, 2021 9 mins read Analysis / Autonomous Weapons / Conduct of Hostilities / Law and Conflict Laura Bruun

Intergovernmental discussions on the regulation of emerging technologies in the area of (lethal) autonomous weapon ...

Autonomy in weapons systems: playing catch up with technology

September 29, 2021 11 mins read Analysis / Autonomous Weapons / Humanitarian Action / Law and Conflict / New Technologies Frank Sauer

For almost eight years now, the international community at the United Nations (UN) has been ...

Autonomous Weapons Systems: When is the right time to regulate?

September 26, 2019 10 mins read Autonomous Weapons / Law and Conflict / New Technologies / Weapons Neil C. Renic

Those wishing to control the spread and use of autonomous weapons systems generally favour pre-emptive ...

Expert views on the frontiers of artificial intelligence and conflict

March 19, 2019 16 mins read Artificial Intelligence and Armed Conflict / Autonomous Weapons / Conduct of Hostilities / Law and Conflict / New Technologies / The most read blog posts in 2019 Sasha Radin

Recent advances in artificial intelligence have the potential to affect many aspects of our lives ...

Machine autonomy and the constant care obligation

December 11, 2018 11 mins read Autonomous Weapons / Conduct of Hostilities / Law and Conflict / New Technologies / Weapons Chris Jenks & Rain Liivoja

The debate about the way the international community should deal with autonomous weapon systems has ...

The (im)possibility of meaningful human control for lethal autonomous weapon systems

August 29, 2018 13 mins read Analysis / Autonomous Weapons / Law and Conflict / Weapons Elke Schwarz

This week, the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS) is holding their third meeting at the UN Certain ...

The impact of gender and race bias in AI

August 28, 2018 13 mins read Analysis / Autonomous Weapons / Gender / Gender and conflict / Law and Conflict / Weapons Noel Sharkey

Automated decision algorithms are currently propagating gender and race discrimination throughout our global community. The ...

The human nature of international humanitarian law

August 23, 2018 10 mins read Analysis / Autonomous Weapons / Conduct of Hostilities / Law and Conflict Eric Talbot Jensen

International humanitarian law (IHL) regulates the use of force in armed conflict. It inherently provides ...

Autonomous weapons: Operationalizing meaningful human control

August 15, 2018 16 mins read Artificial Intelligence and Armed Conflict / Autonomous Weapons / Conduct of Hostilities / Law and Conflict / New Technologies Merel Ekelhof

For the second time this year, States will come together in the UN Convention on ...

Autonomous weapons and human control

July 18, 2018 7 mins read Analysis / Autonomous Weapons / Conduct of Hostilities / Law and Conflict / Weapons Tim McFarland

Concerns about ensuring sufficient human control over autonomous weapon systems (AWS) have been prominent since ...