I2 RAMP · Implementing International Responsibility for AI in Military Practice
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-09-01 → 2024-08-31
- EU contribution
- €263,359
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Implementing International Responsibility for AI in Military Practice
The adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in military practice has been famously portrayed as the third revolution in military affairs after gunpowder and nuclear weapons. While debates continue how to define its ostensibly most dangerous manifestation - namely, lethal autonomous weapon systems - AI continues to be deployed on battlefields in the form of decision support systems and risk-assessing predictive algorithms. Just like any other means and methods of warfare, AI-based technology might (and will) lead to human rights and international humanitarian law violations. The aim of the 'Implementing International Responsibility for AI in Military Practice' (I2 RAMP or Project) was to contribute to the ongoing debate on the various ethical and legal challenges of military AI. This was achieved through a series of publications in specialized outlets, as well as a variety of public engagements at academic, military, and diplomatic fora. The research conducted during the Project revealed that military AI does not create intrinsically unique legal challenges but rather brings to the surface unresolved systemic shortcomings of international humanitarian law (IHL), particularly the unclear legal consequences of unintended engagements. That said, once an inadvertent harmful outcome resulting from deploying AI-enabled tools can be classified as a violation of IHL, there is no such thing as the ‘accountability gap.’ Under the law as it already stands today, crucial decisions in the targeting process and the responsibility for them are already allocated to human commanders as well as the State they belong to, irrespective of whether the systems they use in combat are AI-enabled or not.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in military practice has been famously portrayed as the third revolution in military affairs, after gunpowder and nuclear weapons. While lethal autonomous weapons might be an emerging reality, AI is already present on the battlefields, in the form of, inter alia, decision support systems and risk-assessing predictive algorithms. Just like any other means and methods of warfare, AI-based technology might (and will) lead to human rights and international humanitarian law violations. There is no consensus on the horizon regarding how, to whom and based on what principles international responsibility for such violations could be assigned, let alone implemented. This is particularly conspicuous in the European Union, where the political focus has largely been on the possible applications of AI in business and public services, while the examination of military applications is lagging behind; in fact, the core policy document on the matter, the 2020 European Commission White Paper on AI explicitly excludes “the development and use of AI for military purposes” from its scope. 'Implementing International Responsibility for AI in Military Practice' (I2 RAMP) Action fills this void through bridging theory and practice to comprehensively analyze ethical and legal challenges military AI raises, who (individuals, States or both) can be held internationally responsible and how this responsibility can be implemented with a view to produce both academic and viable operational outputs. This will be achieved by adopting an interdisciplinary approach combining, on the one hand, the Researcher’s academic knowledge of international law and hands-on experience as a military legal adviser, and on the other, the expertise in ethics and computer science of researchers working on the Designing International Law and Ethics into Military AI (DILEMA) Project at the Asser Institute.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- STICHTING T.M.C. ASSER INSTITUUT · Den HaagCoordinatorNetherlands
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/101031698
- https://www.asser.nl/research/regulation-in-the-public-interest-disruptive-technologies-in-peace-and-security/implementing-international-responsibility-for-artificial-intelligence-in-military-practice
Data: CORDIS, © European Union