What you need to know heading into the GGE; the UN SG Report on AWS; our Diplomat's Guide is out now; latest news; and more.

This is Anna Hehir, FLI’s Head of Military AI, and Maggie Munro, Communications Strategist, here with the fifth 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 autonomousweapons.org for our starter guide on the topic.

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

Check Your Letterboxes: The Diplomat’s Guide to Autonomous Weapons Systems Has Arrived

Diplomats frequently come and go from their postings, leaving newbies scrambling to quickly learn everything in their file. To help our laissez-passer friends in this frantic period, we’ve made A Diplomat’s Guide to Autonomous Weapons Systems, which many of our diplomat subscribers will have received in their embassy letterboxes last week.

If you’re new to your diplomatic posting, you’re a desk officer doing your time in capital, or you’re just curious, please reach out to us and we’ll happily send a physical guide to you! We also appreciate feedback so don’t hesitate to let us know how we can improve the next edition.

CCW Back to School

The CCW is about to reconvene next week, as diplomats meet in Geneva to attend this year’s second Group of Governmental Experts meeting on autonomous weapons.

We’ll be there, so come and say hello. If you haven’t received a guide, you can also come collect one from us in the room and help us save some money on postage.

UN SecGen Report = Out

An advance copy of the highly anticipated AWS report from the UN Secretary-General, based on state and non-state submissions, has been released. The final version with full translations should be published later today. Here are our takes:

→ Overall, we’re at a critical point. The urgency for regulation is only increasing, and the report rightly notes that “time is running out”. Political momentum is evident from the many regional meetings (Freetown!), Vienna, the Pope’s address to the G7, and the report itself.

→ The number of submissions - also from among the 66 countries which aren’t members of the CCW - was among the highest ever received. This demonstrates that AWS are a truly global concern and that the issue ought to be discussed in a forum that is open to all UN member states.

→ Support for a treaty is clear. A majority of submissions call for the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on AWS. Check out this overview of all state submissions from Automated Decision Research.

→ Location, location, location: it’s no coincidence that the report emphasises the benefits of the UN General Assembly as a forum to complement existing discussions. AWS raise concerns around proliferation to terrorist groups, increase the odds of unintended escalation and threaten human rights (to name a few issues that barely feature in the IHL-focussed CCW).

Support for Vienna

Endorsements of the Chair’s Summary have been gathering apace with Portugal, Pakistan, Cambodia, Colombia, Lesotho and Samoa associating with the Austrian Chair’s Summary over the past two weeks.

As the UN Secretary-General implores states to create new laws on AWS by 2026, association with the Austrian Chair’s Summary is a powerful signal to demonstrate global convergence in support of a treaty and to lay the groundwork for negotiations.

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.

What We’re Reading

📘 Spoiler Alert came out with two great reports this month; ‘Summit of the Future falters on autonomous weapons’ and ‘Politically unacceptable, morally repugnant, and should be banned’ - summing up the UN Secretary-General’s report.

📘 As states get closer to a treaty, Laura Bruun from SIPRI has written up some powerful findings of a scenario exercise among experts: ‘Towards a Two-tiered Approach to Regulation of Autonomous Weapons Systems: Identifying Pathways and Possible Elements’. Key takeaways are:

• States should explore ethical and broader policy concerns beyond IHL to identify elements for the prohibition tier.

• Regulation should be grounded in ensuring human agency is not undermined in targeting decisions.

📘 And, for a fantastic bird’s-eye view of states’ submissions made to the UN Secretary-General’s report, check out Automated Decision Research’s ‘Overview of submissions to the UN Secretary-General’s report on autonomous weapons systems’.

Overheard This Month

• “Here a soldier begs a drone operator not to kill him. He’s lucky it wasn’t autonomous.” In an online education video on autonomous weapons and AI more broadly, Digital Engine highlights the lack of dignity, restraint and humanity that a world with autonomous weapons faces.

• “Even if China won’t cooperate, the United States should ensure that its own military AI is subject to strict controls. It should make sure AI systems can distinguish between military and civilian targets. It must keep them under human command… Washington won’t get it exactly right—but it must get it less wrong than its enemies.” - former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley with Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO turned AI military tech company founder, in Foreign Affairs.

• “Mr. Karp said that we are ‘very close’ to terminator robots and at the threshold of ‘somewhat autonomous drones and devices like this being the most important instruments of war. You already see this in Ukraine.’” - from a New York Times profile on Alex Karp, Palantir CEO.

AWS in the News

→ The Pentagon’s Drone ‘Hellscape’: US Indo-Pacific Command chief Navy Admiral Samuel Paparo announced in June, “I want to turn the Taiwan Strait into an unmanned hellscape using a number of classified capabilities”. Wired investigates the US Defence Department’s plan to flood the Taiwan Strait with thousands of drones in the case of a Chinese military offensive.

→ Russia’s new aerial threats: The Eurasian Times reports that the Russian Defence Ministry is developing two new unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to aid in the continuing war in Ukraine, in which an “AI arms race” has emerged. The S71-M can reportedly “autonomously search, detect, and engage moving targets using electro-optical sensors and targeting data stored onboard”, seemingly with or without a human in the loop. This seems in line with their recently-unveiled 10-year defence plan, which included a focus on autonomous weapons.

→ Iran’s autonomous weapons wishlist: Iran’s brand new defence minister, confirmed 21 August, appears quite bullish on military AI. In Brig. Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh’s defence strategy proposal, he outlined his desire to equip drones with AI to enable swarming. Analysts, however, question Iran’s ability to develop or acquire such technology, calling Nasirzadeh’s vision potentially “hyperbolic”.

→ Anduril builds its Arsenal: From DefenceNews, American defence tech company Anduril, which focuses largely on AI-enabled weapons, has announced plans to build a new software-based production hub. Known as Arsenal, the manufacturing hubs are part of the company’s plans to “hyperscale” production.

Contact Us

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