Coming soon: Diplomat's Guide to AWS, Pope renews his plea, soundbites from this month, recent news, and more.

This is Anna Hehir, FLI’s Head of Military AI, and Maggie Munro, Communications Strategist, here with the fourth edition of The Autonomous Weapons Newsletter. We’re excited to bring you the news on autonomous weapons systems (AWS) at a pivotal moment, as the world comes to terms with whether algorithms should make life and death decisions (spoiler alert: most people are terrified).

With this monthly publication, we’re keeping our audience - primarily consisting of policymakers, journalists, and diplomats - up-to-date on the autonomous weapons space, covering policymaking efforts, weapons systems technology, and more.

That being said, if you have no idea what we’re talking about, check out our starter guide on the topic.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this, please be sure to subscribe and share as widely as possible.

Coming Soon: A Diplomat’s Guide to Autonomous Weapons Systems

We’re excited to announce that we’ll soon be releasing a diplomat’s guide to autonomous weapons systems!

Intended for diplomats new to or needing a primer on the topic, our comprehensive guide will cover:

• What AWS are;

• Why they pose significant risks;

• Common myths and misconceptions;

• A timeline of developments on the way to a treaty;

• States’ positions;

• And more!

While intended for diplomats, we hope this will serve as a valuable resource for anyone interested in this critical topic. If you’d like a physical or digital copy, please send us a message. Postage is on us!

Two Weeks Left: Endorsements of the Austrian Chair’s Summary on AWS

A reminder to, if you haven’t already, check out the summary from the first ever global conference on AWS ‘Vienna Conference on Autonomous Weapons Systems - Humanity at the Crossroads’.

If you represent a state and would like to associate with the summary, or if you have any questions, please reach out to [email protected] or any Austrian Permanent Mission or Embassy.

Austria is updating the online list on a rolling basis throughout the summer, so get your endorsement in by August 15!

What We’re Reading

Breaking Defense reports that the U.S. Army’s development and rollout of autonomous Robotic Combat Vehicles has, well, hit some roadblocks.

TL;DR? ↓

• With software bugs stopping their initial fleet of robotic trucks in their tracks - literally, bringing them to a halt on the road or ceasing robotic mode due to “obstacles” like speed bumps - some insiders are expressing concerns about the Army’s program to launch a fleet of unmanned combat vehicles by 2028.

• Problems seem to stem from the Army’s dedication to developing this technology internally - particularly their Robotic Technology Kernel (RTK) autonomy software, which is proving to be expensive and difficult to maintain in-house.

• The big picture: As the U.S. military adopts a breakneck pace towards the integration of autonomous technology, this example highlights the need for caution - especially as they push ahead with adopting autonomous weapons systems. Delegating life-and-death decisions to an algorithm seems especially risky when robotic vehicles can’t discern a speed bump from a real obstacle…

Overheard This Month

• “You would have humans that would not be in control of the… decisions to go to war or the decisions to escalate a conflict… We’ve seen this already with online trading and flash crashes that have occurred in stock markets where different algorithms will interact with each other and lead to a stock market crash where they have to turn off the whole system. We don’t want this happening in warfare.” - Peter Asaro from Stop Killer Robots on BBC’s AI Decoded.

• “Ten to fifteen years from now, my guess is… maybe 25 percent to a third of the US military, will be robotic.” - Mark Milley, retired US Army General and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at Axios’ Future of Defense event.

• “We could look back 15 or 20 years from now and realize we crossed a very significant threshold.” - Center for a New American Security’s Paul Scharre on AI’s “Oppenheimer moment”, in The Guardian.

• “There will be weapons of mass destruction that are cheap, scalable and easily available in arms markets all over the world.” - AI expert Stuart Russell in The New York Times, on the proliferation risks from AI-powered weapons.

AWS in the News

→ The Pope repeats his plea: For the second time this year, the Pope called for the world to take action on autonomous weapons at the recent AI Ethics for Peace event in Hiroshima.

→ Big Tech pours big $ into AWS: Anduril and Saronic, both specializing in autonomous weapons systems, are some of the latest defense tech companies to receive huge cash injections from Silicon Valley VC firms - including Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz.

+ Stop Killer Robots’ Catherine Connolly responded in The Guardian: “The money that we’re seeing being poured into autonomous weapons and the use of things like AI targeting systems is extremely concerning.”

→ Killer drones Down Under: The Australian military is purchasing an unspecified number of unmanned precision loitering munitions - aka “suicide drones” - from American defense manufacturer AeroVironment, with plans to deploy them in 2025.

→ Japan takes a stand: Japan’s government has adopted a policy against the development of “fully autonomous lethal weapons”, expressing doubt about their compliance with international humanitarian law and asserting that “human involvement is required, as it is humans who can be held accountable”.

Contact Us

For tips or feedback, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected].