Analysis

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ICRAC Working Paper #3 (CCW GGE April 2018): Guidelines for the human control of weapons systems
Bynsharkey April 10, 2018April 10, 2018

Guidelines for the human control of weapons systems [PDF] Authored by Noel Sharkey, chair of ICRAC[1] Since 2014, high contracting parties to the CCW have expressed interest and concern about the meaningful human control of weapons systems. There is an extensive scientific and engineering literature on the dynamics of human-machine interaction and human supervisory control…

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Analysis | ICRAC News

Autonomous Weapon Systems and Strategic Stability
ByFrank Sauer September 20, 2017September 26, 2018

Building on arguments previously developed for a blog post, ICRAC’s Juergen Altmann and Frank Sauer discuss the strategic implications of autonomy in weapon systems in more depth in a recently published article in Survival. Here’s an excerpt from the introduction: In July 2015, an open letter from artificial-intelligence experts and roboticists called for a ban on autonomous weapon…

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Analysis

Reflections on the 2016 CCW Review Conference
ByFrank Sauer February 8, 2017November 8, 2017

This is a guest post by Anna Khalfaoui. Anna is currently pursuing a LLM at Harvard Law School, having previously studied at Cambridge University and King’s College London. She specialises in public international law and international human rights law. Click here to read this post in braille Reflections on the Review Conference as a newcomer…

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Analysis | Opinion | Uncategorized

Arms Control for AWS: 2016 and beyond
ByFrank Sauer December 7, 2016October 1, 2018

After three informal meetings of experts, the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, during its Fifth Review Conference taking place from 12 to 16 December 2016 in Geneva, will decide on how to continue work on arms control for autonomous weapon systems. Below is a preview to an article published in the October 2016 issue of Arms Control…

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Analysis | Slider

Speed kills! Why we need to hit the brakes on “killer robots”
ByFrank Sauer April 8, 2016October 4, 2018

by Juergen Altmann and Frank Sauer This analysis originally appeared as a guest post on duckofminerva.com Autonomous weapon systems: rarely has an issue gained the attention of the international arms control community as quickly as these so-called killer robots. “Once activated, they can select and engage targets without further intervention by a human operator“, according…

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Analysis | ICRAC in the media | YouTube video

LAWS: An Open Letter from AI & Robotics Experts
ByFrank Sauer July 29, 2015May 10, 2016

Thousands of experts in artificial intelligence, robotics and related professions have signed an open letter, hosted by the Future of Life Institute, calling for a ban on autonomous weapons that select and engage targets without human intervention. You can read more on the importance of this letter to the current global effort of banning lethal…

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Analysis

Banning Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS): The way forward
ByFrank Sauer June 13, 2014June 16, 2015

With ICRAC’s 2009 mission statement fulfilled and the issue of fully autonomous weapon systems picked up by the international community at the United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) in Geneva, ICRAC and the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots can celebrate a first success (Read more about this here and here and see the ICRAC…

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Analysis | News

Is Russia Leading the World to Autonomous Weapons?
ByMark Gubrud May 6, 2014July 16, 2015

The short answer is no. But Russia is testing and may deploy at its ICBM bases a lethal mobile system which has “automatic and semi-automatic control modes.” Additionally, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has recently called for “robotic systems that are fully integrated in the command and control system, capable not only to gather intelligence…

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Analysis | Working Papers

Futureproofing Is Never Complete: Ensuring the Arms Trade Treaty Keeps Pace with New Weapons Technology
Bymbolton October 19, 2013October 24, 2013

In a new working paper, International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC) members Matthew Bolton (Pace University) and Wim Zwijnenburg (IKV Pax Christi) stress the importance of making sure states control new weapons technologies, including robotic weapons, when the Arms Trade Treatyenters into force. It outlines strategies for civil society (such as the Control Arms campaign) and concerned states to counter…

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Analysis | News

A meme is born: autonomous = secure
ByMark Gubrud October 11, 2013July 22, 2015

One of Joshua Foust’s assertions in his debate with Heather Roff was that making weapons autonomous was necessary in order to secure them against the threat of hacking. I posted a response after Foustreiterated this surprising argument, and provided a few scraps of pseudo-evidence to support it, in an article which seems to have gone semi-viral on the internet–launching what seems…

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