First-Ever AI Weapons Summit Did Nothing for Human Rights

As delegates from 50 countries met in the Netherlands this week to discuss the future of the military artificial intelligencehuman right Activists and non-proliferation experts saw an opportunity. for years, Attachmenthts groups have andfought nations that restrict developAdjustment of AI weapons and sign a legally binding contract to limit the use of them about fears that could ultimately reflect their unrestricted development century Nuclear arms race. Instead, the results of what could have been a historical Peaks were only “weak” shop window decoration, said the rights groups.

After two days of intensive talks, panels, and presentations from around 2,500 AI experts and industry leaders, the REAIM (get it?) the summit ended in a non-legally binding “call to action“ about the responsible development, deployment and use of military AI. The participants also agreed to set up a “Global Commission on AI”. That may sound grandiosebut in reality These initiatives are limited to raising awareness of how the technology can be manufactured responsibly. Meaningful conversations about actually reducing or limiting AI weapons were essentially off the table.

Stop Killer Robots Campaign, one of the leading rights groups campaigning against AI in warfare, told Gizmodo the appeal offered a “vague and false vision” of the military use of AI with no reason for clarity about rules or limitations. Safe Ground, an Australian human rights group, called the entire peak a “missed opportunity.”

At the same time tThe United States, which is both a leader in AI weapons systems and a world leader historical one of the leading voices against an international AI weapons treaty, revealed a Political statement with 12 points Outlining its strategy for “responsible” autonomous systems. The statement, which comes just weeks after a controversial new Defense Department policy on AI says all AI systems should comply with international human rights laws and have “a reasonable degree of human judgment”. Although Ministry of Foreign Affairs Officials triumphantly touted the statement as a crucial step forward, rights groups fighting to limit the AI ​​weapons system said it was a complete disaster.

“Now is not the time for countries to tinker with flawed policy statements,” Mary Wareham, director of Human Rights Watch Arms Advocacy, said in a tweet. Going further, Stop Killer Robots Government Relations Manager Ousman Noor called out the statement “The most backward position seen by any state in years.”

“This declaration falls drastically short of the international framework that the majority of states have been calling for in UN discussions,” Stop Killer Robots said in a statement. “It sees no need for legally binding rules and instead allows for the development and use of autonomous weapon systems, with no lines of acceptance.”

For AI military skeptics, the first is-from-It is-kind Summit was actually seen as a step in the wrong direction. A majority of the 125 states were represented before the summit uNConvention on Certain Conventional Weapons during a conference last year expressed interest in new legislation that would essentially ban the development of autonomous weapons. UN Secretary-General António Guterres released a opinion Around the same time that such schemes should be banned under international law. These efforts largely failed due to the United States, China and Russia, all of whom support the development of these weapons. The views of these three countries were previously outliers at the United Nations Now, under the new framework, it seems abandoned that autonomous weapon systems are necessary and inevitable.

A remarkable country not among the approximately 50 nations represented at REAIM Summit? Russia, due to the ongoing war with Ukraine. Presence or not, Russia and Ukraine were discussed throughout the summit as one of the potential test beds for new, fully autonomous military technology. Ukraine already allegedly uses semi-autonomous attack drones and Face recognition by Clearview AI Service for identifying dead Russian troops.

Here are some of the top highlights from the summit.