Events
Upcoming events
Conference
15-18 March 2023
Ingvild Bode, Hendrik Huelss, Guangyu Qiao-Franco, Anna Nadibaidze and Tom Watts will present AutoNorms’ research at the International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Convention in Montreal, Canada.
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Past events
Conference
15-18 September 2022
Anna Nadibaidze participated at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting in Montreal, Canada, presenting her paper “Technology in the Quest for Status: The Russian Leadership’s Artificial Intelligence Narrative”.
Conference
1-4 September 2022
Ingvild Bode and Guangyu Qiao-Franco presented their research at the European International Studies Association (EISA) 15th Pan-European Conference on International Relations in Athens, Greece. Ingvild Bode presented her paper “Silently Negotiating Normativity: Practice, Technology, and Loitering Munitions”. Guangyu Qiao-Franco presented her paper “Theorising the Role of Crisis in International Practice Theory: An Analysis of Crisis Management in Chinese Arms Control Diplomacy”.
Conference
5-8 July 2022
At the “24th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia 2022”, held in Melbourne, Australia, Guangyu Qiao-Franco presented her paper on Chinese AI ethics, leveraging the theoretical lens of communities of practice (CoP). She focuses on the reconfiguration of AI policymaking CoP over time that features varied roles for the government, academia, and the private sector.
Conference
30 June – 1 July 2022
Anna Nadibaidze presented her article “Technology in the Quest for Status: The Russian Leadership’s Artificial Intelligence Narratives” at the 5th Annual Conference of the European Initiative for Security Studies (EISS) held in Berlin, Germany.
Conference
15-17 June 2022
Ingvild Bode, Hendrik Huelss, and Anna Nadibaidze participated in the British International Studies Association (BISA) 2022 conference in Newcastle, UK. To learn more about their presentations and contributions, see the conference programme here.
The Algorithmic Turn in Security and Warfare Workshop
30 May 2022
On 30 May 2022, the AutoNorms project team organised the “Algorithmic Turn in Security and Warfare” workshop which was held at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense.
The workshop brough together a community ofof scholars from a range of different institutions and disciplines. This was with the aim ofdiscussing some of the major implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for international relations and warfare.
Topics discussed included: socio-technical imaginaries of human control in autonomous weapons systems, the implications of algorithmically supported decision-making for international humanitarian law, innovation and experimentation in the Dutch armed forces, gendered approaches to studying weaponised AI, as well as the representations of AI in popular culture franchises such as The Terminator.
The workshop marked an important step in the preparations for a interdisciplinary special issue on the topic of algorithms in security and warfare which will be published with the journal Global Society in early 2024.
We thank all participants for their insightful contributions, thought-provoking papers, and engagement.
The AutoNorms team is also grateful to the Carlsberg Foundation, the European Research Council, and the Centre for War Studies at SDU for their kind support with the organisation of this workshop.
Conference
20-21 May 2022
Tom Watts and Anna Nadibaidze attended the conference of the BISA “International Studies and Emerging Technologies Working Group 2022” held at the Clinton Institute, University College Dublin, Ireland.
Tom Watts presented the paper “‘The Future is Not Set: The Terminator, AI Narratives, and US Military Discourse on Autonomous Weapons Systems,” co-authored with Ingvild Bode.
Guangyu Qiao-Franco’s paper “Insurmountable Enemies or Easy Targets? Military-Themed Videogame ‘Translations’ of Weaponized Artificial Intelligence” was presented by her co-author, Paolo Franco. The article explores how popular culture in the context of videogames portray AI weaponisation in a paradoxical way that both hypes up and undermines its threats.
Anna Nadibaidze presented her ongoing research on “Technology as Status Anchor: How Russia Perceives Artificial Intelligence”.
Invited Presentation: Autonomous Warfare
12 May 2022
Ingvild Bode was invited to deliver an online lecture on “Autonomous Warfare” at the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). The presentation offered an overview of the development towards autonomous weapons systems (AWS) and explained why it matters to put this in the context of a longer-term trajectory of developing weapon systems with automated and autonomous features. Further, the presentation critically investigated the challenges posed by weaponising artificial intelligence (AI), in particular in relation to the extent that humans can remain in control of using force.
Visit from Amnesty International Secretary General
11 May 2022
During Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard’s visit to the University of Southern Denmark, Ingvild Bode presented AutoNorms’ research on weaponised artificial intelligence and autonomy in existing systems such air defence systems and loitering munitions.
Science Festival
25-26 April 2022
Anna Nadibaidze took part in the Book a Scientist programme as part of the Science Festival organised by the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science, with her lecture “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Warfare“.
Conference
22 April 2022
Anna Nadibaidze spoke about Russian perspectives on military AI at the 21st Annual McCain Conference “The Ethics of Military Artificial Intelligence”. The conference was organised by the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership at the US Naval Academy.
Conference
28 March – 2 April 2022
Guangyu Qiao-Franco presented her analysis of norm building activities of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the field of international information security at the International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Convention 2022. Her research builds on ‘communities of practice’ theories, analysing the strategies of SCO member states, such as China and Russia, in expanding the information security community through narrowing the conception of ‘others’.
Conference
10-11 March 2022
Guangyu Qiao-Franco participated in the conference “Law and Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in The Public Sector: From Principles to Practice and Policy” organised by the Asser Institute in The Hague, Netherlands. Her presentation addressed Chinese approaches to the ethical governance of AI. She outlined the evolution of Chinese policies on AI and examines the decision-making processes that drive the shift in China’s understandings of the ethical risks of AI.
Workshop
3-4 March 2022
Guangyu Qiao-Franco and Anna Nadibaidze took part in the workshop “AI and the Transformation of Warfare: Perspectives from South Asia and Beyond“, organised by the Warring with Machines project at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and PRIO Global Fellow Kaushik Roy of Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India.
Guangyu Qiao-Franco introduced her take on China’s foreign policies on lethal autonomous weapons systems and their implications for global governance in this area. Anna Nadibaidze spoke about Russian perspectives of AI and the transformation of warfare.
Online Conference
12 February 2022
Anna Nadibaidze took part in the British Pugwash Technology & Peace Conference on 12 February. Her presentation touched upon the global debate on lethal autonomous weapons systems. See the recording of the event here.
The Algorithmic Turn in Security and Warfare
6-7 January 2022
On 6-7 January, AutoNorms and the Center for War Studies (CWS), with financial support from the Carlsberg Foundation, held the virtual conference “The Algorithmic Turn in Security and Warfare”. The conference brought together participants from different disciplines and institutions to discuss the issue of an ‘algorithmic turn’ in a variety of different security settings, including surveillance, predictive policing, drones, autonomous weapon systems (AWS), as well as policy debates surrounding these developments at the national, regional and international levels. Some of the papers presented at the conference will be published in a special issue (forthcoming).
Find a summary of the conference here.
The keynote lecture titled “The Hacker Way: Moral Decision Logics with Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems” by Dr. Elke Schwarz is available on the CWS YouTube channel.
Competition Result
8 December 2021
Anna Nadibaidze was announced as one of the winners of the 2021 OSCE- IFSH Essay Competition on Conventional Arms Control and Confidence- and Security- Building Measures in Europe. She presented her essay, which touched upon weaponised artificial intelligence, at a meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation. Read more about the competition results here.
Webinar
25 November 2021
Ingvild Bode participated in an online panel discussion on the technical, ethical and political challenges posed by drone warfare and lethal autonomous weapon systems. The webinar was organised by British Pugwash and Student/Young Pugwash (SYP) UK’s Project on Ethical Science. Watch the recording here.
Podcast
10 November 2021
Ingvild Bode was interviewed by Paola Gaeta and Marta Bo from the LAWS & War Crimes Project in episode 8 of the project’s podcast. The episode is entitled “Can humans exercise meaningful control over lethal autonomous weapons?” and is available here.
Online Lecture
8 November 2021
Ingvild Bode delivered a DILEMA lecture on the topic of “Which Practices Shape Norms? Retaining Human Control over the Use of Force”. The discussion was moderated by Klaudia Klonowska, PhD researcher at DILEMA. To watch a recording of the lecture, see the Asser Institute YouTube channel.
Conference
28-29 October 2021
Ingvild Bode and Anna Nadibaidze participated at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Danish Political Science Association (DPSA). Ingvild Bode presented her paper “Silently Negotiating Normativity: Community of Practice, Technology, and Loitering Munitions” and chaired the panel on “New Research in International Relations”. Anna Nadibaidze presented her draft article “Mapping the Russian Position in the Global Debate about Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems”.
Conference
19 October 2021
Ingvild Bode presented her research at the “Critical Borders: Radical (Re)visions of AI” conference, jointly organised by the Centre for Gender Studies and the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge. Her paper entitled “Beyond the Terminator: How imaginaries draw boundaries in the debate about weaponised Artificial Intelligence” was part of the” AI Fact and Fiction” panel on 19 October 2021. Watch the recording here (starting at 4:39:55).
Webinar
13 October 2021
Ingvild Bode participated in a webinar organised by the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP) as part of their Deterrence and Emerging Technologies (DET) webinar series. The panel covered the theme “Situational Awareness, Command, and Control: The Impact of AI”. Find the recording here.
Conference
13-17 September 2021
Guangyu Qiao-Franco presented her research on cross-level analysis in practice theories at the 2021 Conference of the European International Studies Association (EISA). Her research builds on an empirical study on China’s domestic and foreign policies on autonomous weapons, which is intended to complement international practice theory by providing an informative approach for conceptualising cases featuring divides between domestic and international practices.
Conference
13-17 September 2021
Hendrik Huelss presented two conference papers on the evolution of computer vision and implications for warfare as well as on the problem of meaningful human control at the 14th Pan-European Conference of the European International Studies Association (EISA).
Conference
8-10 September 2021
Ingvild Bode, Anna Nadibaidze, and Guangyu Qiao-Franco presented their research at the interdisciplinary Science Peace Security 21 conference.
Guangyu Qiao-Franco presented a two-level analysis (international and domestic levels) of China’s positions on autonomous weapons systems.
Anna Nadibaidze looked into the role of great power identity in Russia’s discourse on LAWS.
Ingvild Bode examined how existing weapons systems with autonomous features shape what counts as meaningful human control.
Conference
9-13 August 2021
Anna Nadibaidze represented AutoNorms at the first session of the UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on emerging technologies in the area of the Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS), which took place in Geneva. During the informal part of the session, Anna presented AutoNorms’ research, with an emphasis on the importance of examining existing weapons with autonomous and automated features for determining the elements of meaningful human control.
Conference
21-23 June 2021
Ingvild Bode presented two conference papers on non-verbal practices and norms as well as on visual analysis at the British International Studies Association (BISA) Conference.
Hendrik Huelss also presented a paper on changing visual regimes and warfare.
Conference
25 June 2021
Guangyu Qiao-Franco presented the research she conducted in cooperation with Ingvild Bode on China’s emerging understanding of what constitutes appropriate human control over the use of force at the 2021 annual meeting of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS). It contains a detailed analysis of China’s international statements at various UN forms and a stocktaking of relevant practices within which opposing notions of permissible scope of human control/machine autonomy were internalised by the Chinese leadership.
Invited Presentation
2 June 2021
Ingvild Bode presented her research on how non-verbal practices shape norms in the context of weapons systems with automated and autonomous features as part of the research seminar organised by the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy, University of Hamburg.
Conference
8 April 2021
Ingvild Bode delivered a talk on “Non-verbal practices and the making of norms” at the Annual Convention of the International Studies Association (ISA).
Invited Presentation
4 May 2021
Ingvild Bode presented her research on how non-verbal practices shape norms in the context of weapons systems with automated and autonomous features as part of the Sandhurst Defence Forum at the Royal Military Academic Sandhurst.
Participation in a Webinar
25 March 2021
Ingvild Bode participated in a webinar to launch the new report “Meaning-less Human Control” written by Ingvild Bode and Tom Watts. The event featured a presentation of the report’s main findings, as well as comments by two experts – Maaike Verbruggen (Institute of European Studies, VUB) and Richard Moyes (Article 36) – followed by Q&A. Peter Burt (Drone Wars UK) moderated the event.
Watch a recording of the event here.