A Compilation of Materials Apparently Reflective of States’ Views on International Legal Issues pertaining to the Use of Algorithmic and Data-reliant Socio-technical Systems in Armed Conflict

Abstract

This document is a compilation of materials that at least appear to be reflective of one or more states’ views on international legal issues pertaining to the actual or possible use of algorithmic and data-reliant socio-technical systems in armed conflict. In September of 2018, the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (HLS PILAC) commenced a project titled “International Legal and Policy Dimensions of War Algorithms: Enduring and Emerging Concerns.” The project builds on the program’s earlier research and policy initiative on war-algorithm accountability. A goal of the current project is to help strengthen international debate and inform policymaking on the ways that artificial intelligence and complex computer algorithms are transforming war, as well as how international legal and policy frameworks already govern, and might further regulate, the design, development, and use of those technologies. In creating this compilation, HLS PILAC seeks in part to provide a resource through which the positions of states with divergent positions on certain matters potentially of international public concern can be identified. Legal aspects of war technologies are more complex than some governments, scholars, and advocates allow. In the view of HLS PILAC, knowledge of the legal issues requires awareness of the multiple standpoints from which these arguments are fashioned. An assumption underlying how we approach these inquiries is that an assessment concerning international law in this area ought to take into account the perspectives of as many states (in addition to other relevant actors) as possible.