2024 Vienna Conference on Autonomous Weapons Systems
The Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs is pleased to host the international conference “Humanity at the Crossroads: Autonomous Weapons Systems and the Challenge of Regulation” on 29-30 April 2024 in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna.
The increased autonomy of weapons through the introduction of artificial intelligence will fundamentally transform armed conflicts. Autonomous weapons systems (AWS) raise profound questions from a legal, ethical, humanitarian and security perspective. Humanity is at a crossroads and must come together to address the fundamental challenge of regulating these weapons.
In the first-ever UN General Assembly resolution on lethal autonomous weapons systems in 2023, an overwhelming majority of States underlined the urgent need for the international community to address the challenges and concerns raised by autonomous weapons systems. Austria therefore organises this conference in the hope of further advancing the debate on an international regulation of AWS.
All States, the United Nations, the ICRC, international and regional organisations representatives of academia, think tanks, industry and civil society are invited to participate and to discuss the fundamental issues and various challenges related to AWS and their international regulation.
Conference Outline:
The Conference will open on 29 April 2024 at 10:00 with a high-level segment including statements from the host country and other invited high-level guests as well as two moderated high-level panels. They will be followed by four multidisciplinary expert panels to examine AWS and address the challenges for their regulation from several angles.
Participating states and other stakeholders will be able to engage with the panellists in Q&A sessions following the expert panel presentations. In addition, there will be an opportunity for brief general statements following Panel Four on the second day of the Conference and to upload statements on the publicly available conference website. Limited capacity for side events during the lunchbreak on both days as well as exhibitions space will be available. The Conference is expected to conclude at 17:15 on 30 April 2024.
High-level Panels – “The need for regulation – action – partnerships”
Two high-level panels of invited guests will discuss in a moderated discussion the need for regulation of AWS and of partnerships to move this objective forward.
Panel One – Emerging technologies, AWS and the (future) shape of conflict
The panel will set the Conference’s scene, discussing where technological development in the field of AWS is going and how the issue of AWS relates to wider questions around artificial intelligence (AI) in the military domain and large-scale data processing. It will address implications of ‘autonomy’ on international security and society in general and introduce the specific humanitarian, legal, ethical, security and technological challenges of AWS.
Panel Two – Human control and accountability under the law
The panel will consider the role of humans in the use of force regarding AWS and provide the basis to discuss the necessary positive obligations that would allow for adequate human judgement and control. It will assess to what extent human decision-making is indispensable to make moral and legal judgements ahead of the use of force and to hold people accountable as required by international law. The panel will also address design, development and training aspects related to AWS.
Panel Three – Human dignity and the ethics of algorithms
The panel will consider the range of ethical and human rights aspects that are of key relevance in relation to AWS and their regulation. This includes the question of processing people as data through sensors and algorithms to make decisions about subjecting them to physical force, the targeting of human beings and the wider risks including the role of bias in data sets and algorithms.
Panel Four – How dealing with AWS will shape future human-technology relations
This panel will focus on the wider questions of why action is necessary for society as a whole and the future of armed conflict. Lessons learnt from autonomy and AI in in civil applications will be considered. The risk of an ‘autonomy’ arms race, lowering the threshold for military confrontation and proliferation to non-state armed groups and terrorists demonstrate the urgency to take action.
On 28 April 2024, the International Campaign to Stop Killer Robots is organising the civil society forum "Action at the Crossroads: Autonomous Weapons Systems and the Challenge of Regulation" at Palais Wertheim, to which the general public is invited. The forum is independent of the conference of the Austrian MFA. Separate registration is required.
The conference aimed to provide substantive input for UN Secretary General’s report mandated by the first-ever UNGA First Committee resolution on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems and to be presented to the General Assembly at its seventy-ninth session. The deadline for the submission of input to this report is 25 May 2024.
The Conference Summary by the Chair outlining the main points made during the conference will be submitted by Austria’s for the UN Secretary General’s report. States are encouraged to consider these points for inclusion in their submissions. States are also invited to associate themselves with the submission of the Conference Summary to the UN Secretary General. This would be without prejudice and additional to any national or other joint submission to the UN Secretary General by States.
08:30 Registration open
08:30 – 10:00 Coffee available
10:00 High-level opening
Welcome by Verena Gleitsmann
Opening remarks by Alexander Schallenberg
Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of Austria
10:15 - 10:30 Keynote speech by Jaan Tallinn
Co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge
High-level panels – “The need for regulation – action – partnership”
10:35 - 11:20 High-level panel: “Humanity at a Crossroads with AWS: Are we losing human control?”
Moderator: Verena Gleitsmann
Alexander Schallenberg
Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of Austria
Hasan Mahmud, M.P.
Hon’ble Foreign Minister, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
Arnoldo André Tinoco
Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Costa Rica
Mirjana Spoljaric Egger
President of the International Committee of the Red Cross
Eivind Vad Petersson
State Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Norway
Jaan Tallinn
Co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge
11:20-11:45 Coffee break
11:45 - 12:30 High-level panel: “Geopolitics and machine politics: How to move forward on AWS”?
Moderator: Verena Gleitsmann
Alexander Schallenberg
Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of Austria
Igli Hasani
Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Albania
Timothy Musa Kabba
Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation of the Republic of Sierra Leone
Izumi Nakamitsu
United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs
Aruni Wijewardane
Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka
Anthony Aguirre
Executive Director, The Future of Life Institute
12:30 – 14:15 Lunch
For parallel side events during the lunch break please check the side events programme.
14:15 – 15:45 Panel 1 – Emerging technologies, AWS and the (future) shape of conflict
Panel discussion – followed by moderated Q&A
Co-moderators: Eline Bötger, Senior Policy Officer for Security Policy, Dutch MFA and George-Wilhelm Gallhofer, Deputy Director for Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, Austrian MFA
The panel will set the scene for the conference, discussing where technological development in the field of AWS is going and how the issue of AWS relates to wider questions around Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the military domain and large-scale data processing. It will address implications of ‘autonomy’ on international security and society in general and introduce the specific humanitarian, legal, ethical, security and technological challenges of AWS.
Agnes Callamard
Secretary General, Amnesty International
Beyza Unal
Head of Science and Technology Unit, Science and Technology Unit, UNODA
Jimena Viveros
Member of the United Nations High-level Advisory Body on AI
Chief of Staff and Head Legal Advisor, Mexican Supreme Court
Elina Noor
Senior Fellow, Asia Programme, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Franz-Stefan Gady
Senior Fellow, Asia Programme, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
15:45 – 16:15 Coffee Break
16:15 – 17:45 Panel 2 – Human control and accountability under the law
Panel discussion – followed by moderated Q&A
Co-moderators: Co-moderator from Sierra Leone (tbc), and Andreas Bilgeri, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Austria to the Office of the UN and Special Organisations in Geneva
The panel will consider the role of humans in the use of force regarding AWS. It will provide the basis to discuss the necessary positive obligations that would allow for adequate human judgement and control. It will also assess to what extent human decision-making is indispensable to make moral and legal judgements ahead of the use of force and to hold people accountable as required by international law. The panel will further address design, development and training aspects related to AWS.
Cordula Dröge
Chief Legal Officer and Head of the Legal Division,
International Committee of the Red Cross
Harold Hongju Koh
Sterling Professor of International Law, Yale Law School
Arthur Mutambara
Director, Institute for the Future of Knowledge, University of Johannesburg
Frank Sauer
Head of Research, Metis Institute for Strategy and Foresight,
University of the Bundeswehr Munich
Richard Moyes
Director, Article 36
17:45 End of Day 1
08:30 – 09:30 Coffee available and presentation / interactive stalls open
09:30 – 11:00 Panel 3 – Human dignity and the ethics of algorithms
Panel discussion – followed by moderated Q&A
Co-moderators: Jan Michael Gomez, Acting Director, Peace and Security Office of United Nations and International Organizations, MFA of the Philippines, and Dr Caroline Wörgötter, Head of Unit for Conventional Weapons and Disarmament-Related Aspects of New Technologies, Austrian MFA
The panel will consider the range of ethical and human rights aspects that are of key relevance in relation to AWS and their regulation. This includes the question of processing people as data through sensors and algorithms to make decisions about subjecting them to physical force, the targeting of people and the wider risks including the role of bias in data sets and algorithms.
Peggy Hicks
Director, Thematic Engagement, Special Procedures and Right to Development Division,
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni
Executive President of the International Centre of Artificial Intelligence of Morocco, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University
Neil Renic
Researcher at the Centre for Military Studies, University of Copenhagen
Fan Yang
Assistant Professor of International Law, Law School of Xiamen University
Anja Kaspersen
Director for Global Markets Development and Frontier Technologies,
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee Break
11:30 – 13:00 Panel 4 – How dealing with AWS will shape future human-technology relations
Panel discussion – followed by moderated Q&A
Co-moderators: Ambassador Christian Guillermet Fernández, Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations in Geneva, and Ambassador Alexander Kmentt, Director for Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, Austrian MFA
This panel will focus on the wider questions of why action is necessary for society as a whole and the future of armed conflict. Lessons learnt from autonomy and AI in civil applications will be discussed. The risk of an ‘autonomy’ arms race, lowering the threshold for military confrontation and proliferation to non-state armed groups and terrorists demonstrate the urgency to take action.
Patricia Lewis
Research Director, International Security, Chatham House
Mary Ellen O‘Connell
Robert & Marion Short Professor of Law and Professor of International Peace Studies,
Kroc Institute at University of Notre Dame
Thompson Chengeta
Reader in Law, Liverpool John Moores University, and Board Member,
UN Secretary General Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters
Kenneth Payne
Professor of Strategy, King’s College London
Emilia Javorsky
Director of the Futures Programme, The Future of Life Institute
13:00 – 14:30 Lunch
For parallel side events during the lunch break please check the side events programme.
14:30 – 16:00 Session 1 for statements by attending states and other stakeholders
16:00 – 16:30 Coffee Break
16:30 – 17:30 Session 2 for statements by attending states and other stakeholders
17:30 – 18:00 Closing session
This session presents the conference chair’s outcome document outlining the main points made during the presentations and discussions. The Conference Summary will be submitted by Austria as input for the UN GS report pursuant to UN General Assembly resolution A/78/409.
18:00 Conference Ends