UN disarmament chief warns AI could crowd out human judgement in war

Robin Geiss, director of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research, warned on 20 October that artificial intelligence is being used across military activity, from intelligence analysis and target identification to drones and cyber operations. His concern is the shrinking space for human judgement.

Geiss said the systems compress the time between identifying and striking targets and allow forces to process many more targets. Their opacity can also increase the risk of error, miscalculation and unintended escalation. This is the UNIDIR director’s assessment, not a report of a particular new battlefield incident.

UNIDIR is developing a forum on AI, peace and security within the UN system. Its planned work includes guidance for industry and a shared vocabulary for concepts such as autonomy and safety. The central governance question is how to preserve meaningful human control over decisions that can take lives.

Primary source: www.ungeneva.org
Cover: Shanraq illustration; not a photograph of a UN meeting.