UN Warns Machine Warfare Is Near as AI Shrinks Decision Time
“I think we can say machine warfare is coming ever closer, and the question, put simply, that’s in front of us, is really: Are we going to let machines target and kill human beings?” Robin Geiss said at a news conference at UN headquarters in New York. The briefing covered new initiatives from the institute’s Centre of Excellence on AI, Peace and Security.
Geiss said AI and autonomy now operate across “intelligence analysis, in target identification, drones, cyber attacks, information operations, and so on.”
The window for human oversight is closing fast, he warned.
“As we speak, decision cycles are compressing; they’re compressing to machine speed, and the margin for human judgment is increasingly narrow, including in the nuclear domain,” he said.
Geiss cautioned that the spread of AI capabilities means “the threshold, the entry point for very sophisticated operations, is getting lower,” which could put advanced operations within reach of non-state actors.
A handful of countries and companies are also steering security outcomes in ways “that traditional arms control frameworks were not designed to address,” he said.
He conceded that “geopolitical competition and tension are serious obstacles to the way forward,” but said worries over AI’s impact “are already transcending geopolitical blocs, and they’re prompting action from major powers.”
UNIDIR, together with Switzerland and Pakistan, will launch the center’s new forum Thursday in New York. Geiss described it as “the only multi-stakeholder body within the United Nations system that works on AI in international peace and security and in the military domain.”
Three more initiatives will be unveiled during the week, he announced.
The goal, he said, is to pinpoint gaps and propose “concrete measures that can be implemented at the national and international levels, while ensuring that efforts to prevent misuse do not limit access to the peaceful uses and benefits of artificial intelligence for all.”
On the battlefield, Geiss said the military AI race “is very much a race for speed,” including “downsizing the sensor-to-shooter time.”
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