WCC signs joint civil society statement on AI in warfare

Photo by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash

The World Council of Churches is among over 100 organisations who have a statement on AI in warfare that calls on tech companies and states to halt the use of AI systems in military kill chains, including AI decision-support systems, target generation systems, remote biometric surveillance, and multimodal AI models such as large language models.

The statement further urges that all other AI systems be designed, developed, and deployed in ways that do not cause, contribute to, or are otherwise linked to violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

The statement, released 15 June, comes ahead of informal exchanges on "Artificial intelligence in the military domain and its implications for international peace and security," being organized by the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs on 15-17 June in Geneva.

"Legal scholars and practitioners, technical experts, tech workers, UN special rapporteurs, and investigative journalists have long warned against the development and deployment of AI in warfare, given the heightened risk of international crimes," notes the statement. "Despite claims by their proponents that AI tools are making warfare more effective, precise, or humane, real-world deployments indicate that AI is actually facilitating more violent, dehumanizing, and destructive methods of warfare."

The statement further notes that AI systems are simply not reliable enough to power fully autonomous weapons. "Actors who choose to deploy AI systems that are used to commit international crimes must be held criminally responsible," reads the text. "Our concerns are not limited to the errors that may result from such systems malfunctioning but encompass how these systems fundamentally transform military operations."

Companies have a responsibility to respect human rights, notes the statement.

"As reflected in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, companies engaged in such conduct must immediately cease their contribution to harm," reads the statement. "Even when a company is not causing or contributing to harm but is merely linked to it, it is expected to use its leverage to seek to bring an end to these violations."

"The emergence of autonomous weapons systems able to operate without meaningful human control is one of the most challenging of the many moral issues that surround the growing impact of AI in our world and societies", said Peter Prove, director of the WCC's Commission of the Churches in International Affairs (CCIA). "That is why the WCC has already for some time been advocating for a pre-emptive ban on so-called 'killer robots'", he added, "and that is why we are joining this civil society appeal today."

Read the full Joint statement on AI in warfare: www.accessnow.org/press-release/joint-statement-on-ai-in-warfare/