UNIDIR’s parallel efforts address industry conduct and armed-group misuse risks
The U.N. Institute for Disarmament Research will launch the first international forum focused on the military uses of artificial intelligence on Thursday. The Geneva-based institute’s new effort is designed to bring together key players confronting concerns that the rapidly developing technology could pose a serious threat to humanity. Robin Geiss, who heads UNIDIR, said at a U.N. press conference Tuesday that “the margin for human judgment is increasingly narrow, including in the nuclear domain.”
The forum will form part of UNIDIR’s Center of Excellence on AI, Peace and Security, which the institute established this summer as the first permanent United Nations platform focused on those subjects. Geiss said the center received funding from all five nuclear powers: the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France. The forum is intended to assemble “actors from every relevant sector and all over the world” to work on AI’s military uses.
Geiss said it is difficult to assess how close the world is to machines possibly acting outside human control, and that uncertainty “is the issue we’re trying to resolve here.” UNIDIR said the initiative would tackle that uncertainty through a forum for relevant sectors worldwide.
AI is increasingly used in areas including early-warning systems, information gathering and reconnaissance. Geiss said it was difficult to determine the point at which machines would operate outside human control. He said there had long been widespread reluctance to address AI guardrails, while the proliferation of AI’s capabilities and potential impact had led to “a growing realization that we stand at a crossroad — that now is the time to act, including on military AI.”
Geiss said the U.N. recognizes that global competition to lead on AI poses serious obstacles. He said concerns about AI’s impact are already transcending geopolitical blocs and prompting action from major powers. He pointed to a proposal last month for the United States and China to establish an AI safety alert system for issues that could threaten national security. AI risks were also a major topic in speeches by leaders of many of the U.N.’s 193 member nations at their annual high-level meeting last month.
Geiss did not specify the forum’s exact functions, saying it would form part of other AI initiatives the center was launching that week. He said one effort would focus on industry’s role in AI and aim to develop “a framework for responsible industry behavior.” A separate effort would focus on the risks of AI misuse by armed groups.
Decisions by companies on design and development “determine whether AI-enabled military capabilities are ultimately reliable, predictable and whether they can operate in line with international law,” Geiss said. For that reason, he said, UNIDIR is developing a framework of responsible industry behavior that will “provide practical, voluntary guidelines” that follow international law and ensure human rights.
UNIDIR will hold consultations this week with defense technology companies, software developers, subcontractors, investors and other participants. These groups will work alongside governments, civil society, academia and experts, according to Geiss, to develop the responsible-industry framework and consider how companies’ choices affect military uses of AI.
UNIDIR also is launching an initiative focused on the risks of AI misuse by armed groups, he said, warning that such actors are already using the technology to support operational planning, execution and logistics. The armed-group initiative is separate from the broader military forum, though both concern military applications of the technology.
Geiss warned: “The urgent issue of AI in the military domain will certainly no longer be allowed to linger in the shadows.” He added: “The time has come to pull our strengths and confront AI in the military head-on.”