In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Search: robots

02 Jul

...war anymore? An end-run around the P-5? Neglecting the UN? I want to thank EJIL editor and old friend Joe Weiler for commissioning this essay – and then running it when it turned out to be a somewhat strange piece for EJIL. It draws on my personal experience regarding the early days of the then-proposed ICTY, among other things. Everything from battlefield robots to the P-5 … no lack of topics here in a short space. Although I think it will drive some readers crazy, and for a good reason...
02.07.09 | |

05 Jan

...already made a new year’s resolution to post more about robots, but promised to cover other areas as well. His first post of the year covered adulteration of extra virgin olive oil, showing that there is no limit to potential international law questions. Kristen Boon also reflected on the role of international law in settling the East China Sea dispute. If you need to catch up with the news of the past fortnight, our weekday news wraps may be helpful. As always, we also provided our weekly events and announcements...
05.01.13 | |

14 Aug

...military advantage through weapons research. Instead of green technology, the competitionists invent killer robots. Instead of cyber security, their researchers find new ways to destroy through computer applications. China builds coal-fired power plants to pay for a navy bigger than the U.S.’s. The contrast with the non-polar world could not be greater. The pandemic is leading to de-coupling from hegemonic rivalry. Figures like Putin, Trump, or Xi, are not found among those committed to solidarity. And the solidarists are everywhere. Their names reach headlines without stoking cults of personality, including,...
14.08.20 | |

05 Apr

...development and use of AI where its potential benefits can outweigh its risks.  No technology, including weapons and weapons systems, is infallible.  The approach to accountability for unwanted outcomes should be no different than with any other means or method of warfare.             Hyperbolic calls to ban “Killer Robots” specifically, or militarized AI generally, have gained little to no traction among States.  This should come as no surprise given the potential AI offers to exponentially increase the speed, efficiency, and accuracy of operations and reduce the inherent and infamous fog of...
05.04.24 | |

29 Oct

...So, when the behemoth Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) chose to tackle this theme in its blockbuster movie Captain America: Civil War (Civil War) in the form of a treaty, I was intrigued, apprehensive, and cautiously excited. The Movie and the Marvel Cinematic Universe For readers not familiar with the MCU, it is a mammoth media franchise covering a shared fictional universe. Derived from hundreds of Marvel comic books, it centers on a cast of superheroes, gods, sentient artificial intelligence powered robots, powerful fighters, and devoted but talented sidekicks (for the...
29.10.21 | |

27 Dec

...to society and/or to innovation. (Uh, you know, issues having to do with African cyberpunk, DNA hacking and stuff like that. And don’t even let Ken Anderson (1, 2, 3, etc.) or me (1, 2, etc.) get started on robots…) So I was happy to see that the current issue of Scientific American looks at “The Future of Science: 50, 100, and 150 Years from Now.” Heady stuff. Ubiquitous computing, biotech, colonizing Mars, possibly even my long-awaited flying cars. But reading this with the cool eye of a lawyer (as...
27.12.12 | |

21 Feb

...legislation and interpretation, make them do new tricks. Perhaps this is all that is needed and technology has not left law in the dust. If that is the case, while battlefield robots may present some new risks, do they actually overturn IHL as we know it? (Similarly do some of the other topics mentioned in the links, such as the implications of DNA hacking, raze pre-existing rules?) Are these actually areas where many whole new areas of substantive rules are needed, or are these examples of areas where regulatory enforcement...
21.02.12 | |

18 May

...nature I’m intrigued by the idea that the social world can be modeled by reference to discount rates and net present value and capital budgeting for the private firm. Not entirely convinced, possibly because I am a finance professor, but … intrigued. Autonomous battlefield robots. Or as I like to refer to them, because no editor can resist this … Ethics for Robot Soldiers. This speaks for itself. Just war theory and laws of war. I’m active and interested in matters of just war theory and the ethics of war...
18.05.08 | |

15 Mar

...last, there are still major questions about what form that conflict would take. Could we possibly see a return to massive armies hurtling themselves at each other on defined battlefields? I’d be willing to engage suggestions to that effect, but it seems intuitively unlikely against the backdrop not just of nuclear weapons but also of the battlefield robots that all Ken Anderson fans will be familiar with. (Nor would it look like the asymmetric warfare we saw during Cold War sideshows and now in Iraq and Afghanistan.) So what’s the...
15.03.09 | |

02 Oct

...recession had gone worldwide. The full text of the blog post, as it happened, was pretty nearly, ” The recession has gone global.” It linked to a news article of about three paragraphs. This gives me pause. And yet there are plenty of blog posts that I do think citable, including some of my stuff on proportionality and the laws of war, just war theory, theorizing about Michael Walzer’s work, and, of course, robots. Many bloggers, including folks here at OJ, are much more academic in their approach to blogging...
02.10.09 | |

13 May

Following on Ken’s most recent post on autonomous battlefield robots, I came across the short story Malak by Peter Watts (you can read it here). What jumped out at me was a short story that beginning with epigrams such as these: “An ethically-infallible machine ought not to be the goal. Our goal should be to design a machine that performs better than humans do on the battlefield, particularly with respect to reducing unlawful behavior of war crimes.” –Lin et al, 2008: Autonomous Military Robotics: Risk, Ethics, and Design “[Collateral] damage...
13.05.12 | |

14 May

...framework for counterterrorism – which is to say, a framework of domestic law for things like detention, interrogation, FISA, etc. My paper, which I’ll post up if Brookings will let me once complete, is forward looking with respect to the tactics of counterterrorism, specifically targeted killing, particularly by Predators and advancing robotic technologies. (Yes, dear readers, you knew I would work around to robots eventually.) My fundamental observation to the Obama administration is that, to judge by Campaign Obama and Administration Obama, it embraces targeted killing as a useful method...
14.05.09 | |