Thread by @paul_scharre

Have you been ignoring #autonomousweapons for the past 18 months and are now suddenly scrambling to catch up before the #CCWUN #LAWS #GGE next week? (You know who you are...) Congrats, your procrastination has been rewarded! Here's your handy autonomous weapons reading list... 1/

First, homework. The official #CCWUN food-for-thought paper by the chair. Gotta read it. Super short, tho. undocs.org/ccw/gge.1/2017… 2/

Country paper by the Netherlands: undocs.org/ccw/gge.1/2017… 3/

BTW, props to the Netherlands for offering a working definition of autonomous weapons ... (too long for one tweet, even w/ xtra characters) 4/

Autonomous weapon = “A weapon that, without human intervention, selects and
engages targets matching certain predefined criteria, following a human decision to deploy the weapon on the understanding that an attack, once launched, cannot be stopped by human intervention.” 5/

Also, some useful points on meaningful human control from the Netherlands country paper. There's sure to be disagreement, but they're putting some fodder on the table for discussion. 6/

Now, let's catch up quick on some highlights from news and articles on #autonomousweapons from the past 18 months since the last #CCWUN meetings (apologies in advance for articles I miss) 7/

A refresher -- here's the Chair's report from the 2016 #CCWUN #LAWS meeting: documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/… 8/

Lots of discussion about "meaningful human control," "appropriate human judgment," and other formulations of "____ human ____". Final report included language on "appropriate human involvement with regard to lethal force." 9/

A few months after the 2016 #CCWUN, @RebeccaCrootof rolled out with this report on #autonomousweapons papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… … (no easy summers at Yale Law, apparently...) 10/

Frank Sauer weighed in on arms control for #autonomousweapons @ArmsControlNow armscontrol.org/ACT/2016_10/Fe… 11/

.@HMRoff on marine mammals as an analogy for how we think about delegated responsibility and accountability in #autonomousweapons duckofminerva.com/2016/11/analog… (I've always found this to be a very intriguing analogy) 12/

Bonnie Docherty @hrw @BanKillerRobots rolled out some commentary and a major report in the lead-up to the #CCWUN review conference in Dec 2016 hrw.org/news/2016/06/1… 13/

Bonnie Docherty @hrw @BanKillerRobots "Making the Case" for a preemptive ban on #autonomousweapons hrw.org/report/2016/12… 14/

Anna Khalfaoui offered some reflections on the #CCWUN Fifth Review Conference icrac.net/2017/02/reflec… 15/

.@RebeccaCrootof & Frauke Renz suggested we "Change the Conversation" on #autonomousweapons in @lawfareblog lawfareblog.com/opportunity-ch… 16/

Izumi Nakamitsu @INakamitsu of the #UN weighed in with a letter to @BanKillerRobots stopkillerrobots.org/2017/07/united… 17/

Full @INakamitsu UN letter here: stopkillerrobots.org/wp-content/upl… 18/

.@mattwaxman1 @kennethanderson wrote a book chapter giving an overview of the legal and ethical arguments on #autonomousweapons lawfareblog.com/primer-debates… 19/

Then in August of this year 100+ leaders of robotics and #AI firms signed an open letter warning of the dangers of #autonomousweapons futureoflife.org/2017/08/20/kil… 20/

Actual text of the open letter here: dropbox.com/s/g4ijcaqq6ivq… … 21/ @TobyWalsh

The letter sparked many reactions and responses, including some analysis of how it differed from previous letters that called for a ban:

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Here was my take on the letter and the feasibility of a ban in @thecipherbrief thecipherbrief.com/killer-robots-… 23/

And (thread) ... 24/

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Vladimir Putin joined the debate a few weeks later saying, "Whoever becomes the leader in [artificial intelligence] will become the ruler of the world." (I guess he's not signing a ban...) rt.com/news/401731-ai… 25/

My take on autonomy and the role for human judgment in war in @wef weforum.org/agenda/2017/09… 26/

Piling on Vladimir Putin's comments, @elonmusk joined in, warning that an #ArtificialIntelligence arms race could spark World War III money.cnn.com/2017/09/04/tec… 27/

.@HerbLinCyber @StanfordCISAC reacted to Putin's comments on #ArtificialIntelligence @BulletinAtomic thebulletin.org/will-artificia… 28/

... And so did my @CNASdc colleague @Gregory_C_Allen @CNNOpinion cnn.com/2017/09/05/opi… 29/

Juergen Altmann and Frank Sauer rolled out a comprehensive article on #autonomousweapons and strategic stability in @SurvivalEditors icrac.net/2017/09/autono… (spoiler: they don't agree with Putin that an #AI arms race is a good idea) 30/

Since the full article's behind a paywall, here's the blog post @icracnet Juergen Altmann and Frank Sauer wrote earlier on the topic icrac.net/2016/04/speed-… 31/

The strategic stability implications of #autonomousweapons are very concerning and I think it's great that Frank and Juergen have written such an in-depth piece on the topic. I hope strategic stability will be a topic of discussion at #CCWUN. 32/

Here's another great article on #autonomousweapons and strategic stability by @MLC_Haas @CSS_Zurich @ETH in @TheNatlInterest nationalinterest.org/feature/autono… (an older article, but great points) 33/

.@RepMikeRogers weighed in on an #ArtificialIntelligence arms race in @thehill thehill.com/opinion/techno… 34/

The UK clarified its policy on the role of humans and automation in lethal force: theguardian.com/politics/2017/… 35/

My take on the challenges of regulating #autonomousweapons in @TIME time.com/4948633/robots… 36/

.@TheAtlantic had a great article on the brittleness of modern software. The article and my take below:

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.@BanKillerRobots recapped UN statements on #autonomousweapons stopkillerrobots.org/2017/10/unga72/ /38

And in the final run-up to the #CCWUN #autonomousweapons meetings next week, a few other articles and news items ... 39/

.@RebeccaCrootof has a great thread on regulating #ArtificialIntelligence

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.@ericschmidt of Alphabet discussed #ArtificialIntelligence with me @CNASdc #AINatSec Summit 41/

.@mchorowitz & Julia M. Macdonald draw on lessons from other civil society arms control efforts to try to answer the question, "Will Killer Robots Be Banned?" @lawfareblog lawfareblog.com/will-killer-ro… 42/

Stephen Hawking weighed in this week on the dangers of #ArtificialIntelligence and "powerful autonomous weapons" cnbc.com/2017/11/06/ste… 43/

And another letter @TobyWalsh, this time from #AI and #robotics researchers in Australia abc.net.au/news/2017-11-0… 44/

Phew! It's a lot to catch up on... and I'm sure I missed a bunch too. Apologies for things I missed and please weigh in with other articles, news, tweets, etc. on #autonomousweapons ahead of the #CCWUN #GGW #LAWS meetings next week. 45/45

Also, @mchorowitz breaks down the technology in this @MIT Daedalus article mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.116… 46/

And @mchorowitz weighed in on definitions @BulletinAtomic thebulletin.org/ban-killer-rob… 47/

Plus forthcoming book(!) from @sean_welsh77 "Ethics and Security Automata: Policy and Technical Challenges of the Robotic Use of Force" routledge.com/Ethics-and-Sec… 48/