Contemporary warfare, conflict and security practices are profoundly shaped by digitisation and Artificial Intelligence. This is partly but not purely because warfare takes place in the realm of the digital, as in cyberwarfare and the online dissemination of disinformation. All aspects of conflict and warfare are increasingly datafied. A modern tank, for example, is not simply a military vehicle but is now a platform for battlefield information and situational awareness. In contemporary conflicts, data analytics play a crucial role in information gathering, target identification and military strategy. Artificial intelligence (AI) is deployed for automated targeting and battlefield simulation, among many other uses.

Advances in AI have direct implications for the precision, speed, and autonomy of digital warfare systems, and raise substantial ethical questions. Moreover, funding for military use has become a main driving force of AI research. With the role of Big Tech companies and governments in data-driven battlefield targeting and experimentation, some even signal “a new regime of warfare.”

This raises profound and urgent legal, societal, behavioural, ethical, cultural, economic, ecological and health questions that cut across all disciplines and faculties at UvA. For instance, we need to urgently discuss human rights in this context, as well as the ethics and law of automation of decision-making on the battlefield. Attention is also needed for the underlying technological layer that enables and amplifies these developments. Integrating perspectives is essential to ensure that technological innovation aligns with ethical, ecological and societal responsibility.