With the massive proliferation of drones, and advances in various AI applications, swarms of increasingly autonomous armed drones are considered by militaries, experts and scholars alike to be an important aspect of future conflicts. The use of swarms is not only likely to proliferate among militaries and non-state actors in the next decades, it is also likely to be immensely disruptive as a new means of warfare. As AI-powered drone swarms enter the battlefield, they will have tactical, operational as well as strategic implications, promising broad and deep changes to the conduct of hostilities.

As part of the Polymath Initiative, the GCSP, along with the NATO Partnership for Peace Consortium hosted by the George C Marshall European Center for Security Studies will be hosting a panel session as part of the inaugural 2023 REAIM summit on Responsible Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain hosted by the Dutch government.

This interactive panel discussion will survey the many impacts of drone swarms, ranging from their strategic implications, to technical challenges, governance issues, and ethical conundrums.

Moderator:

• Dr Jean-Marc Rickli, Head of the Global and Emerging Risks and Head of the Polymath Initiative - Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Co-chair of the NATO PfPC Emerging Security Challenges Working Group

Speakers:

• Dr Sandra Scott-Hayward, Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) - School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Queen’s University Belfast, and Polymath Fellow, Geneva Centre for Security Polic
• Dr Ricardo Chavarriaga, Head of the Swiss CLAIRE office, Polymath Fellow, Geneva Centre for Security Policy, and Senior Researcher, Centre for Artificial Intelligence, ZHAW
• Zachary Kallenborn, Policy Fellow - George Mason University
• Dr Lydia Kostopoulos, Emerging technologies - US Joint Special Operations University
• Tobias Vestner, Head of Research and Policy Advice & Head of Security and Law – Geneva Centre for Security Policy
• Ms Anja Kaspersen, IEEE Director of Global Markets, Frontier

All information can be found here.