Vienna Conference calls for regulation of AI weapons

Like gunpowder and the atomic bomb, artificial intelligence (AI) can revolutionize warfare, analysts say –making human disputes unimaginably different and deadly.

"This is our generation's 'Oppenheimer moment' where geopolitical tensions threaten to lead a major scientific breakthrough down a perilous path for the future of humanity," read the summary at the end of the two-day conference in Vienna.

U.S. physicist Robert Oppenheimer helped invent nuclear weapons during World War II.

Austria organized and hosted the two-day conference in Vienna, which brought together some 1,000 participants, including political leaders, experts, and members of civil society from over 140 countries.

The group's final statement "affirms our strong commitment to urgently work with all interested stakeholders on an international legal instrument to regulate autonomous weapons systems."

"We have a responsibility to act and to put in place the rules that we need to protect humanity... Human control must prevail in using force," said the summary, which will be sent to the U.N. secretary-general.

Many weapons can be transformed using AI into autonomous systems, thanks to sophisticated sensors governed by algorithms that allow a computer to "see."

This will enable the location, selection, and attack of human targets –or targets containing human beings –without human intervention.

Most weapons are still in the idea or prototype stages, but Russia's war in Ukraine has offered a glimpse of their potential.

Remotely piloted drones are not new, but they are becoming increasingly independent and used by both sides.

"Autonomous weapons systems will soon fill the world's battlefields," Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said on Monday when opening the conference.

He warned now was the "time to agree on international rules and norms to ensure human control."

Austria, a neutral country keen to promote disarmament in international forums, introduced the first U.N. resolution to regulate autonomous weapons systems in 2023, supported by 164 states.

Source: AFP