Artificial intelligence and war

We live, it is often said, in an age of Artificial Intelligence. AI is many things – a buzzword, a promise, a technology, a logic. It is often hailed as ‘the ultimate game changer’ for economy, society, and warfare and will wield a pervasive influence on human life. But to what end? The fast pace with which the multi-billion dollar AI industry advances, shapes policy, and sets its eyes on every aspect of human affairs, including war, reflects the expansionist logic of the technology itself. Prioritised are speed and scale as the human is gradually replaced with the logos and reason of AI technology. In this configuration, the human becomes a functional data component at best, a relic at worst. This talk will explore how the logic of AI shapes military perspectives and practices in ways that inevitably expand the use of violence, as evidenced in recent conflicts, and erodes our human capacity to take moral responsibility in and for warfare.

Accessibility

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About the speaker

Elke Schwarz is Professor of Political Theory at Queen Mary University London. Her research focuses on the intersection of ethics of war and ethics of technology with an emphasis on unmanned and autonomous or intelligent military technologies and their impact on the politics of contemporary warfare. She is the author of Death Machines: The Ethics of Violent Technologies (Manchester University Press), is an RSA Fellow, a member of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC), 2022/23 Fellow at the Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies (CAPAS) in Heidelberg, and 2024 Leverhulme Research Fellow.

About this event series

Political turning points, 2024-2025: Causes, consequences, solutions

2024 and 2025 are crucial years for global politics, with a number of highly anticipated elections (in India, the United Kingdom, the United States and elsewhere). These elections are coming at a time ofcoinciding with major armed conflicts (especially in Ukraine and Gaza), as well as rising levels of income inequality (globally and nationally), deflated living standards that still have not recovered to pre-Covid levels, crumbling healthcare systems, and fierce culture wars that are tearing up the fabric of our societies.

The sense of uncertainty and volatility is overwhelming and there is no way to predict what world we will live in two years from now. How can we understand thisthe causes and consequences of this overwhelming uncertainty and volatility? and what are the different components that define its causes and consequences? What is being done to mitigate for its effects and address the different challenges that emerge in it?

This series of Director’s Seminars and Soundbites will approach the question of uncertainty by exploring the complex range of practices and processes that define it today as a condition that is closely interlinked with economic, cultural, and environmental challenges.

Director's Seminars are an opportunity for audiences to get an in-depth theoretical perspective on sustainable and inclusive prosperity. These Seminars are given by academics who are pushing for new ways of thinking and new ways of researching society's grand challenges.

For more events in this series visit the series page ►