UNGA Informals on LAWS ICRAC Statement on Ethical Considerations Delivered by Prof. Peter Asaro on May 13, 2025 Thank you, Chair. I speak on behalf of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control, or ICRAC, a group of academics, experts, scholars and researchers in computer science, artificial intelligence, robotics, international law, political science, philosophy and […] Continue Reading
Peter Asaro
Profile
Dr. Peter Asaro is a philosopher of science, technology and media. His work examines the interfaces between social relations, human minds and bodies, artificial intelligence and robotics, and digital media.
His current research focuses on the social, cultural, political, legal and ethical dimensions of military robotics and UAV drones, from a perspective that combines media theory with science and technology studies. He has written widely-cited papers on lethal robotics from the perspective of just war theory and human rights. Dr. Asaro's research also examines agency and autonomy, liability and punishment, and privacy and surveillance as it applies to consumer robots, industrial automation, smart buildings, and autonomous vehicles. His research has been published in international peer reviewed journals and edited volumes, and he is currently writing a book that interrogates the intersections between military robotics, interface design practices, and social and ethical issues.
Dr. Asaro has held research positions at the Center for Cultural Analysis at Rutgers University, the HUMlab of Umeå University in Sweden, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. He has also developed technologies in the areas of virtual reality, data visualization and sonification, human-computer interaction, computer-supported cooperative work, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robot vision, and neuromorphic robotics at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA), the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, and Iguana Robotics, Inc., and was involved in the design of the natural language interface for the Wolfram|Alpha computational knowledge engine (winner of the 2010 SXSW Web Interactive Award for Technical Achievement), for Wolfram Research.
He is currently working on an Oral History of Robotics project that is funded by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and the National Endowment for the Humanities Office of Digital Humanities.
Dr. Asaro received his PhD in the History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he also earned a Master of Arts from the Department of Philosophy, and a Master of Computer Science from the Department of Computer Science.
Website
http://www.peterasaro.org/
Recent Posts by: Peter Asaro

Statement on Ethical Considerations in Open Informal Meeting at UNGA 1st Committee
News, Slider, Statements, Uncategorized
Posted on 13 May 2025

Statement on Technical Considerations in Open Informal Meeting at UNGA 1st Committee
Uncategorized
Posted on 13 May 2025
UNGA LAWS Informals ICRAC Statement on Technical Considerations Delivered by Prof. Peter Asaro, 13 May 2025 Thank you Chair. I speak on behalf of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control, or ICRAC, a co-founding member of the Stop Killer Robots Campaign. ICRAC has many concerns about the development and use of autonomous weapons and […] Continue Reading

ICRAC Releases New Report on Meaningful Human Control
ICRAC News, Working Papers
Posted on 20 August 2019
ICRAC Members Daniele Amoroso and Guglielmo Taburrini have completed a new ICRAC Working paper #4 on “What makes human control over weapons “Meaningful”? The paper was prepared for distribution at the August 2019 meeting of the United Nations CCW GGE on Lethal Autonomous Weapons. The paper can be downloaded from our Resources Page, along with […] Continue Reading

ICRAC Statement at Informal Consultations of the August 2019 CCW GGE on LAWS
ICRAC News, News
Posted on 20 August 2019
Statement delivered by ICRAC Vice-chair Peter Asaro to the CCW GGE Informal Session on the Chair’s Non-Paper, August 19, 2019. “The International Committee for Robot Arms Control, which is a member of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, would like to thank the Chair for this Draft, and make the following comments and requests. First […] Continue Reading

ICRAC statement at the March 2019 CCW GGE
Front Page, ICRAC News, Statements
Posted on 26 March 2019
As delivered by Prof. Peter Asaro, March 26, 2019. ICRAC has been pleased to hear states shift their focus away from definitions of the technologies of autonomous weapons systems and move towards discussing restriction of their use with regards to how they should be controlled. Of course, by definition, if states wanted genuine meaningful human […] Continue Reading

ICRAC Statement at the April 2018 CCW GGE
Front Page, ICRAC News, News, Statements
Posted on 09 April 2018
International Committee for Robot Arms Control Statement to the UN GGE Meeting 2018 Delivered by Dr Thompson Chengeta, on 9 April 2018 Mr. Chairperson, I speak on behalf of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control [ICRAC], a founding member of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. Ambassador Gill, we thank you for your important […] Continue Reading