Tracking new autonomous weapons; upcoming UN AWS talks; our new 'Slaughterbots' video; and more.

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

📣 Update on new UN AWS talks in New York 📣

We’re getting ready to head to NYC next month as states, observers, civil society, and experts will meet at the UN on 12-13 May to continue urgent discussions that bring us closer to the opening of negotiations of a treaty on autonomous weapons. This is a do-not-miss event on the 2025 calendar for those following international discussions on autonomous weapons regulation.

UNODA has released the programme which you can check out here. Some highlights we’re looking forward to are the UN Secretary-General’s address, the segment on regional leadership, and the diverse range of panels covering humanitarian, legal, ethical, security, and technological considerations.

Registration is open for all stakeholders - don’t forget to do so until the 30th April deadline!

Are you a journalist who would like to cover the meeting in New York? Check out this travel sponsorship grant for journalists offered by Lex International to support talented journalists reporting on autonomous weapons and military AI.

We’ll see you there! 🍎

New weapons on Autonomous Weapons Watch

We’ve just published a new series of autonomous weapons on our public database, Autonomous Weapons Watch!

A recent trend we’re seeing is autonomous weapons that function as missiles able to seek and engage targets. These autonomous missiles appear to travel at speeds too fast for human operators to maintain control from afar.

Another autonomous weapon you have to see to believe is a football sized kamikaze drone:

Be sure to head to Autonomous Weapons Watch to check out the latest developments in autonomy in weapons systems.

Launch of ‘Slaughterbots and the urgent fight to stop them’

We have released the latest installment in our 'Slaughterbots' series, this time focusing on the expanding international movement advocating for the prohibition of the most dangerous autonomous weapons and ensuring meaningful human control over others.

We were honoured to have international representatives such as UN Under-Secretary-General Izumi Nakamitsu, Sierra Leone Foreign Minister Timothy Musa Kabba, Austrian Foreign Affairs Ministry Director of Disarmament Alexander Kmentt, and other esteemed individuals join us for interviews.

Notably, a majority of UN member states now support a legally binding treaty on autonomous weapons. As discussed above, representatives will soon convene in New York this May to continue work towards this goal.

Watch ‘Slaughterbots and the urgent fight to stop them’, linked below on YouTube or X, and find the other short films in the series here.

What We’re Reading

📚 The Italian Institute for International Political Studies published a comprehensive paper on ‘Autonomy and Accuracy in Weapon Systems: The Prospects of Artificial Intelligence’ by Prof. Ernesto Damiani.

Overheard This Month

• “Lethal autonomous weapons systems that function without human control or oversight pose a direct threat to the right to life. We encourage progress on a legally binding instrument to prohibit such weapons systems.” - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk in a recent Geneva speech.

• “We are more likely to trust the machine decision that we have less time to overrule, where we cannot create a full mental picture in time to make a human decision – as we are further embedded into digital systems, those are the kinds of tensions that I don’t see going away anytime soon. They’re intractable problems.” - Prof. Elke Schwarz, author of Death machines: The ethics of violent technologies, speaking on a panel about the ethics of using autonomous technologies in warfare at the Alan Turing Institute.

• “The alternative is a wild west of autonomous arms, which would be far worse for a state with as many potential threats as India.” - PhD candidate Pooja Arora in a recent SundayGuardian op-ed, urging for Indian leaders to help regulate AWS.

AWS in the News

→ AWS from Temu (no, really): WIRED reports that commercially-available drones are at risk of being turned into autonomous weapons systems by civilians through the addition of cheap accessories available on sites like Temu and AliExpress.

→ UK’s drone deal: American defense tech company Anduril is reportedly planning to open a factory in the UK, aiding their expansion into the European defense space. This follows nearly £40 million in contracts awarded to Anduril by the UK Government, including for ‘ghost drones’ designed for surveillance and targeting.

→ Robot dog PSA: Dutch YouTuber Hoog released a retro-style PSA about how to survive an autonomous robot dog attack. While entertaining, the real fear factor in the video is how increasingly relevant it is. Check it out below:

Contact Us

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