Our New York Readout

This is Anna Hehir, FLI’s Head of Military AI, and Maggie Munro, Communications Strategist, here with the 11th 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 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.

🍎 UN AWS Talks in New York: The Readout 🇺🇳

We’re back from New York City after attending the recent UN talks on autonomous weapons on 12-13 May. If you couldn’t be there or would like to relive the action, read on for our highlights and hot takes.

High-level stakes

As the meeting commenced with a high-level segment, it became clear that this wasn’t an ordinary meeting to discuss an ordinary issue. The UN Secretary-General António Guterres spoke in a video message imploring to states that “We are living through deeply dangerous and divided times, and we don’t have a moment to lose… Time is running out to take preventative action”.

The ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric explicitly called upon states to “start negotiations on an instrument because I don’t think we have more time to lose”.

Sierra Leone’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Musa Timothy Kabba warned the room that “when weapons are developed without restraint, they are eventually used without restraint”.

And the UN Director and Deputy to the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Adedeji Ebo concluded, “I come away more convinced than ever by the Secretary-General’s call for a legally binding instrument by 2026… There is not a second to lose”.

Participation, engagement and inclusivity

A common thread through many states’ and civil society comments alike was the critical need to engage diverse voices and take an inclusive approach to governance on this issue. Every state needs to have a voice in the global discussion on autonomous weapons, and the recent meeting in New York allowed states who are not party to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons to participate.

In fact, 20 per cent of attending states were non-CCW members. We heard from states who have never engaged on this issue before and from some who are actively stepping into regional and global leadership on the issue.

What does this all mean?

You might be wondering why we’ve been so excited by the recent UN meeting in New York. What does this meeting have to do with a future treaty?

The very fact this meeting took place was a hard-fought victory by the majority of states who are in support of a legally binding instrument. Providing states with a forum to discuss the issue outside of the CCW ruffles the feathers of states who don’t want any regulation because it takes away the veto power that they exercise in the CCW.

And, importantly, it allows the issue to be discussed in its entirety, including key themes of human rights, ethics, security and technological risks. Every state has a stake in this issue, and this meeting showed governments that solely viewing autonomous weapons regulation through international humanitarian law misses the forest for the trees.

For a full readout of every statement, do check out Reaching Critical Will’s report on the event!

Overheard in NY:

• “Who benefits most from the idea that this is complex?… Why should I have faith in the big military powers doing the right thing at the CCW?” - A participant* at the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung UN side event on Elizabeth Minor’s new report (see “What we’re reading” below!).

• “What’s the middle ground if the big powers won’t sign on? An instrument without countries like Israel, the U.S., China, Russia signing on, IS the middle ground. We have 129 countries right now.” - Another FES side event participant.

• “We’re making a lot of progress, so let’s do it. Let’s do it now… We need the instrument to help build the stigma, now, regardless of the participation of major military powers.” - Another FES participant.

• And from Magnus Lovold of Lex International, an excellent thread summarizing day one of the talks, with key insights like this:

*Note: The Friedrich Ebert Stiftung event was held under Chatham House Rule.

What we’re reading:

📚 In advance of the UN talks, Human Rights Watch published “A Hazard to Human Rights: Autonomous Weapons Systems and Digital Decision-Making”, an extensive new report urging governments to negotiate a treaty on AWS - especially given their finding that “autonomous weapons systems pose grave risks to human rights during both war and peacetime”.

📚 Article 36’s Elizabeth Minor released her latest report: “Code and Conflict: Next Steps Towards Regulating Autonomous Weapons Systems”. In it, she argues that it’s now both more urgent and more feasible to negotiate a legally binding instrument on AWS.

📚 The InterAgency Institute published the preliminary results of their project mapping AWS discussions at the 2024 CCW/GGE, finding deadlocks on the “operationalization of human control, bias, and risks”.

UN AWS Talks in the News

→ Reuters: “Nations meet at UN for 'killer robot' talks as regulation lags”.

💡 ”The idea that you wouldn't want to rule out the delegation of life or death decisions ... to a machine seems extraordinary.” - Patrick Wilcken, Amnesty International's Researcher on Military, Security and Policing, to Reuters.

→ PassBlue: “Can a Treaty Controlling Killer Robots Soon See the Light of Day? Experts Hope So”.

💡 ”An algorithm cannot be held accountable. It can’t be sent to prison. It can’t be made to pay reparations.” - Brady Mabe, Legal Adviser at the ICRC mission to the UN, in PassBlue.

→ UN News: “‘Politically unacceptable, morally repugnant’: UN chief calls for global ban on 'killer robots'”.

💡 ”Machines that have the power and discretion to take human lives without human control should be prohibited by international law.” - UN Secretary-General António Guterres opening the UN talks.

→ UN News: “‘Political courage’ urgently needed to address ‘killer robots’”.

💡 ”International humanitarian law and international human rights law very much apply to people, not machines. So there’s a bit of a gap there, and it also plays into the accountability gap: if there isn’t a human in the loop, then who is accountable?” - Nicole van Rooijen, Executive Director of Stop Killer Robots, to UN News.

→ Global Dispatches: “Can The UN Ban AI-Powered “Killer Robots” Before It’s Too Late?”

💡 ”We’re seeing countries come to the table, some of them for the first time realizing this issue applies to them, and they realize the terror of this issue and… that they have a say. Others who’ve wanted to have a voice on this issue - they’ve seen the CCW, they’re not party to it - but now they get to have a voice.” - Our very own Anna Hehir, FLI’s Head of Military AI (and co-author of this newsletter!) on Global Dispatches.

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