Markus Wagner, a Published Author and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Wollongong based in Australia participates in Risk Roundup to discuss Autonomous Weapons Systems and Law.
Can Law Regulate Autonomous Weapons System Effectively?
As artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are rapidly entering the hi-tech warfare battleground in cyberspace, geospace, and space (CGS), autonomous weapons systems (AWS) are revolutionizing warfare and becoming a terrifying global reality for the future of human life.
From across nations, reports are already emerging of complex algorithmic systems support numerous aspects of war-fighting including in:
- navigating and utilizing unmanned naval, aerial and terrain vehicles
- producing collateral damage estimations
- tracking and deploying missile systems
- locating enemy radar signals
- automating everything from personnel systems and equipment maintenance to the deployment of surveillance drones, robots and more
As autonomous weapons system progresses rapidly and are now within reach of many human decision-makers, the reality today is that artificial intelligence is leading us toward a new revolutionary battlefield that has no boundaries or borders, may or may not have humans involved, has many unknowns and will be impossible to understand and perhaps control by humans in the coming years.
The very idea of weaponization and use of lethal artificial intelligence seems to be a highly dangerous and destabilizing development as it brings complex security risks for each nation’s human decision-makers at all levels. The emerging practice and positioning of an autonomous weapons system would alter the very meaning to be a human and will in no uncertain terms alter the very fundamentals of security and the future of humanity.
In the absence of effective leadership, as further weaponization of artificial intelligence is inevitable, it is important to understand and evaluate:
- is it even possible to prevent a lethal autonomous weapons arms race?
- if we cannot prevent autonomous arms race, what could go wrong and what is at risk?
- is there any binding international law against AWS actions that would violate the fundamental security principles of humanity?
- What can be done to protect the future of humanity and human life?
It seems the legality of autonomous weapon systems under existing international law is a rapidly growing security risk as technology advances and intelligent machines acquire the capacity to operate without human control in cyberspace, geospace, and space. It is important to understand that just because advances in technology may allow for the successful development of autonomous weapons systems does not mean that we should. As we debate whether international law should permit unrestricted use of autonomous weapons systems, we are perhaps reaching a point of no return. Now is the time to talk about the lawfulness of taking humans out of the loop during lethal targeting of autonomous weapons systems and whether a law can effectively regulate autonomous weapon systems.
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About the Guest
Associate Professor Wagner teaches and writes on international law. His recent scholarship has focused on the development of autonomous weaponry and its compatibility with international humanitarian law. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in prestigious journals and he has been invited to present his research domestically and internationally at academic conferences, as well as before government officials.
Some of his work in the area of autonomous weapon systems includes the following:
Markus Wagner. The Dehumanization of International Humanitarian Law: Legal, Ethical and Political Implications of Autonomous Weapon Systems, 47 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 1371 (2014), available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2541628.
Markus Wagner. Autonomous Weapon Systems, in Rüdiger Wolfrum (ed.), The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, Oxford University Press, 2016, available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2786136.
Markus Wagner. Autonomy in the Battlespace: Independently Operating Weapon Systems and the Law of Armed Conflict, in Dan Saxon (ed.), International Humanitarian Law and the Changing Technology of War, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2013, 99, available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2211036.
About the Host of Risk Roundup
Jayshree Pandya (née Bhatt), Founder and CEO of Risk Group LLC, is a scientist, a visionary, an expert in disruptive technologies, and a globally recognized thought leader and influencer. She is actively engaged in driving global discussions on existing and emerging technologies, technology transformation, and national preparedness.
Her work focuses on the impact of existing and emerging technological innovations on nations, national preparedness, and the very survival, security, and sustainability of humanity. She believes that the reality of the imminent technological and economic singularity necessitates that Darwin’s evolution theory, a theory that has evolved from natural selection to the survival of the fittest to symbiosis to mutualism be translated and scaled from micro to macro level and understood and evaluated from the perspective of the transformative and evolutionary changes seen across nations (largely triggered due to technology transformation and re-defining and re-designing of systems at all levels). Her research in this context evaluates the evolution of intelligence in all forms, researches strategic security risks emerging from disruptive innovations, reviews the diminishing capacities of the risk management infrastructure, points out the changing role of decision-makers, defines dynamic decision-making approaches with machine intelligence, integrates all components of a nation: governments, industries, organizations and academia (NGIOA), and defines strategic security risks so that nations can improve the state of risk-resilience across cyberspace, geospace and space (CGS). As nations make a move from centralization towards decentralization, the re-defining and re-designing of systems at all levels evaluated in Dr. Pandya’s comprehensive research scholarship include artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, internet of things, blockchain, cryptocurrency, quantum computing, virtual reality, synthetic biology, big data analytics, drones, nanosatellites, biotechnology, nanotechnology, gene editing, and much more. Her research is much needed for the survival and security of humanity today and in the coming tomorrow.
Jayshree’s doctorate work in the 1980s focused on hydrogen production by Halobacterium halobium, for which she received India’s National Young Scientist Award in Biochemistry. Her many publications on this work have been cited in several books, journals, and reports published by governments, including a report from the United States Department of Energy. Her work on anti-cancer drugs also received worldwide attention and, among other citations, has been referenced in a report published by the World Health Organization. In 1991, she was invited to come to the United States (under the Scientist Exchange Program) to continue research on hydrogen production and was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute. After that, she researched atherosclerosis at the University of Chicago Medical School. Next, she took a job at Aurotech, a biotech company based in Wisconsin. As in her Ph.D. research, she used microorganisms to develop natural processes and technologies, and some of the projects she worked on were quite promising. While her doctorate and post-doctorate studies gave her the first taste of the power of interdisciplinary research, it also introduced her to the repressive power of institutional silos and inefficiencies. As a result, her physical location wasn’t the only thing that shifted in the 1990s; her focus did as well. Since Microbiology trained her to see changes in tiny organisms coming from natural selection, she began to see similar forces at work in the evolution of individuals as well as entities across NGIOA and society in general. It’s all the same basic mechanism. Her career took another turn after she was asked to consider risk management as part of a strategic planning effort by one of her employers. She quickly realized that most risk management is all process, with no actual benefit. That was the beginning of Risk Group, the strategic security risk research organization she founded in 2002, from where she is passionately creating and managing cutting-edge security ventures that bring a futurist perspective to nations and all its components to improve innovation capacity and to define and design new ideas, innovations, products, and services for security and sustainability.
From the National Science Foundation to organizations from across nations, Jayshree is an invited speaker on emerging technologies, technology transformation, digital disruption, strategic security risks, industry risks, and country risks. She is the author of the book, The Global Age: NGIOA @Risk and has also published many scientific and technical papers.
Jayshree advises decision-makers at all levels on existing and emerging technologies: emerging applications, impact, and solutions.
About Risk Roundup
Risk Roundup, a global initiative launched by Risk Group, is a security risk reporting for risks emerging from existing and emerging technologies, technology convergence, and transformation happening across cyberspace, geospace, and space. Risk Roundup is released in both audio (Podcast) and video (Webcast) format and is available for subscription at (Risk Group Website, iTunes, GooglePlay, Stitcher Radio, Android, and Risk Group Professional Social Media).
About Risk Group
Risk Group LLC, a leading strategic security risk research and reporting organization, is a private organization committed to improving the state of risk-resilience through collective participation, and reporting of cyber-security, geo-security, and space-security risks in the spirit of global peace through risk management. Incorporated as a limited liability corporation and headquartered in Sugar land TX, Risk Group is independent, impartial, and not tied to any interests. Best known for its Risk Roundup initiative, Risk Group publishes benchmark Risk Roundup Webcast and Podcast reports on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Internet of Things, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Quantum Computing, Virtual Reality, Synthetic Biology, Big Data, Drones, Nanosatellites, Cyber-Security, Geo-Security, Space-Security, Cyber Warfare, Electronic Warfare, Dual-Use Technologies. Risk, Risk Management, Resilience, Wearables, Technology Trends, Strategic Security, Futurism, and much more. The rapidly growing Risk Roundup Community is a beacon of hope for the future of humanity.
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