Project description
The role of AI in warfare
Weaponised artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of autonomous weapons systems (AWS) could diminish the role of meaningful human decision-making in warfare. Today, states already use more than 130 systems that can autonomously track targets. But future autonomous weapons will increasingly include AI in their critical functions. Here, machines, rather than humans, will make life or death decisions. This development is likely to change international norms governing the use of force. This is why the EU-funded AUTONORMS project will develop a new theoretical approach to study how norms, understood as standards of appropriateness, manifest and change in practices. It will investigate norm emergence and change across four contexts of practices (military, transnational political, dual-use and popular imagination) in the US, China, Japan and Russia. It will also review the impact AWS could have on the current international security order.
Objective
Weapons systems with an increasing number of autonomous features are emerging as revolutionary technologies of war. In particular, this concerns systems with autonomy in their critical functions that relate to selecting and engaging targets without human input. This weaponisation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) signals the looming absence of meaningful human control in warfare, which has become a central focus of the debate on autonomous weapons systems (AWS). Here, states either seek to introduce new norms governing AWS or to leave the field open in order to increase their room of manoeuvre. These uncertainties make monitoring to what extent AWS will shape and transform international norms governing the use of force a matter of great importance. But existing International Relations research on norms despite producing excellent critical work does not yet enable us to understand the dynamics of this vital process because it does not capture adequately how norms emerge and develop. The state of the art conceptually connects norms predominantly to international law and limits attention to how norms emerge in deliberative international forums. Instead, the AUTONORMS project will develop a new ground-breaking theoretical approach that allows us to study how norms, understood as standards of appropriateness, manifest and change in practices. Taking this bottom-up perspective, we will monitor norm emergence and change across four contexts of practices (military, transnational political, dual-use, and popular imagination) in four countries (USA, China, Japan, Russia). This flexible portrayal allows us to adequately understand how norms related to AWS will develop, as well as considering the impact such emerging norms have on the current international security order of which norms are constitutive building blocs. The project thus provides an innovative analytical model for studying uncertain processes of technological innovation associated with the AI revolution.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences computer and information sciences artificial intelligence
- social sciences political sciences political transitions revolutions
- social sciences law international law
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2019-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
5230 Odense M
Denmark
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