Drones
UN disarmament institute chief warns AI is on track to crowd out human decision-making in warfare
UNIDIR director Robin Geiss says AI is already widely used in military operations and shortens the time between spotting and striking targets, and announces a new UN forum on military AI on Thursday.
The head of the United Nations’ independent disarmament research institute has warned that artificial intelligence is already widely used on the battlefield and that human judgment in military operations is shrinking fast. Robin Geiss, director of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), spoke to journalists at UN Headquarters in New York on 20 October, according to UN News.
“Are we going to let machines target and kill human beings?” Geiss asked. He said AI was increasingly “on track to crowding out human decision-making” in the military sector.
Where AI is already used
Geiss said AI is being given a growing list of tasks, from intelligence analysis and target identification to drone operations and the orchestration of cyber-attacks. In his assessment, this comes at the expense of human judgment, including in the nuclear domain.
He also pointed to the effect on tempo. According to the UN account, the shift is speeding up battlefield operations, shortening the time between identifying and striking a target and allowing forces to engage far more targets each day. Many of these systems are opaque, he said, which raises the risk of error, miscalculation and unintended escalation. As AI tools become easier to use, it will also become easier for non-state actors to run sophisticated military operations.
Calls for rules
Geiss acknowledged that geopolitical competition is a serious obstacle to regulating military AI, but said concern about the risks is increasingly shared across political lines, including among major powers. As an example, he cited a proposal made in September by the United States for an AI “notification mechanism” with China, under which the two largest military spenders would warn each other about AI incidents that could threaten national security.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly urged states not to cross what he calls a “moral red line” and has called for stronger regulation of military AI and a legally binding treaty on lethal autonomous weapon systems. Geiss said those calls are finding growing echo internationally.
New UNIDIR forum
On Thursday, Geiss said, UNIDIR’s Centre of Excellence on AI, Peace and Security will launch a multi-stakeholder forum on AI in international peace and security and in the military domain, which he described as the first of its kind in the UN system. It will focus on three areas:
- a framework of practical, voluntary guidelines for companies that design and develop military AI tools;
- an “AI security lexicon” to settle how terms such as autonomy, safety and security are used, since different actors currently use them differently;
- the risk that non-state armed groups misuse AI for operational planning, execution and logistics.
On the drone side of the battlefield, Geopolitiki has also reported on APKWS: Pentagon and BAE Systems sign a framework agreement for up to 25,000 kits a year against drones.
