Peter Asaro, Chairman of the Stop Killer Robots Campaign, pointed out that the target lists created by the US army with artificial intelligence should be examined by a human in the attack targeting a primary school in Minab, Iran, and said, "More than 150 children were killed because there was no such protocol." he said.
It has been organized by TRT since 2017 and this year "World without Center: Who Leads When the Rules Are Invalid?" TRT World Forum, which brought together the world's leading names with the theme, was held in Istanbul on 6-7 November.
Peter Asaro, President of the Stop Killer Robots Campaign, made evaluations to the AA correspondent regarding the legal liability of autonomous weapon systems, their effects on civilians, and the need for international regulation to control these systems within the scope of the forum, and explained what legal rules will be applied in case of death of a human due to a robot or artificial intelligence error.
Stating that there is a legal difference whether the incident is civilian or military in nature, Asaro said that if the cause of death is a civilian robot or artificial intelligence, the relevant domestic law, product liability and commercial law rules will apply.
Asaro stated that international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions apply in armed conflicts and that states are held responsible for deaths that occur as a result of the use of force.
Stating that in some cases, soldiers or commanders who commit war crimes can be held individually responsible, Asaro noted that for this, the intent/will to commit a crime must be proven.
Asaro explained that in cases of autonomous or artificial intelligence systems where the decision-making process cannot be fully understood, it is very difficult to hold operators legally responsible for the actions or results of these systems.
Stating that these people may not have expected the event to occur or did not understand its consequences, or that they may have taken shelter behind it by claiming that they could not foresee the event will occur, Asaro described it as "extremely dangerous" for such unaccountable decisions to be made in the military field.
In the civilian field, Asaro cited companies and engineers as examples of parties that can be held responsible.
"If we allow machines to make life-or-death decisions, we will have to view humans as mere 'data'"
Stating that autonomous weapon systems based on artificial intelligence, which have the potential to cause great harm to civilians in the military field, must be regulated, Asaro said:
"As a matter of fact, we have already seen this in Gaza and Iran with the use of artificial intelligence, which has significantly increased the number of targets of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and US forces, and this has had a huge impact on civilians. We have to be proactive in this regard. If we allow machines to make life-or-death decisions about people, we will have to see humans as just 'data' and calculate the value of human life based on military requirements or other things. This is fundamentally dehumanizing people. These are only those that take into account the value of human life, "These are decisions that need to be made by people who understand what value means. While machines can do calculations, they can't really comprehend it. So if we do something like that, we undermine human dignity and devalue human life, not just for the victims of these machines."
Recalling the US/Israeli attack on an elementary school in Minab, Iran, Asaro said, "It has now been revealed that the US army used artificial intelligence to create target lists. This was one of the targets determined. It was based on old information, so in a way they put the blame on the database, but as a result, a human should have examined them. Under normal circumstances, people would review those target lists and find out that the data is old and that there is newer, more accurate data showing that this place is a school. Since there is no such protocol." More than 150 children were killed." made his assessment.
Stating that enlarging and disseminating these systems with increasing conflicts and targets will increase the speed and intensity of the war tremendously, Asaro said that more targets will be able to be bombed in a shorter time. Asaro stated that this would make it difficult to find political solutions to the problems underlying the conflicts and ultimately achieve peace.
Asaro concluded his words by talking about the campaign's work on the control of autonomous weapons:
"We have been working for more than 10 years on the path to an international agreement that will ban and control autonomous weapons. We have made some progress in initiating discussions within the United Nations (UN) Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. As a matter of fact, in just 1.5 weeks, it will be voted on whether to grant the authority to negotiate a new agreement protocol next year. We very much want this to happen and to have a meaningful agreement. However, there is a possibility that states will not do this. That is why we are carrying out intense lobbying activities around the world. "We are a non-governmental organization representing 300 non-governmental organizations. We are in contact with states, diplomats, parliaments and the media, and we are trying to raise awareness in order to draw attention to the issue and seize the real opportunity before us to take concrete steps."
