Research Themes
United States
This research theme examines US practices in relation to weapons systems with automated and automated features. These include operational practices of design, development, and deployment, but also extend to a wider range, including US evolving stances as delivered in the context of the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS). This is complemented by an analysis of practices performed by civilian developers of AI applications (in relationship with military actors) and how cultural-specific, often fictional representations of weaponised AI and robotics shape public discourse. Practices performed across these different societal contexts in the US are considered as potentially productive of norms.
Articles on United States
Why Investigating Tech Startups in Algorithmic Warfare Matters
On 29 May 2025, the tech startup Anduril Industries and the Big Tech company Meta announced a privately funded collaboration to design and develop extended reality products integrating AI for the US military. This is just one recent example of private tech companies’ growing involvement in supplying the US government
Google’s Brave New World? Big Tech, Military AI, and the Trump Effect
In recent days, Google’s update of its AI principles that avoids clear ethical pledges in contrast to the 2018-version has gained attention. While this could be seen as a major policy shift of a big AI player, I argue in this post that it underlines an intensification of business activities
“Mission Impossible”? Talking Popular Culture at the REAIM 2024 Summit
The simultaneous release of the films Barbie and Oppenheimer on 21 July 2023 was a cultural phenomenon. “Barbenheimer”—as this event was popularly called—captured global attention. It also invited reflection on how the public comes to think about the politics of nuclear weapons and what role pop culture plays in this
The Creator of New Thinking On AI? Popular Culture, Geopolitics, and Why Stories About Intelligent Machines Matter
Whilst the depiction of weaponised artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in popular culture is often highly inaccurate and dramatized, Hollywood blockbusters provide the starting point from which many members of the public begin to develop their thinking about these technologies. For instance, news articles discussing AI are often accompanied with images
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