The Ethics of Autonomous Weapons Systems

About this episode

The episode discusses the ethical implications and legal challenges of autonomous weapons systems in warfare with expert Yuval Shany.

Artificial intelligence is transforming warfare faster than the legal and ethical frameworks designed to govern it. Militaries around the world are deploying AI-powered decision support systems to identify targets, assess proportionality, and direct weapons. The gap between what is technically possible and what international law can effectively regulate is widening by the day. Yuval Shany is a law professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a research fellow at the Oxford Ethics in AI Institute. He also served on the UN Human Rights Committee, where he first encountered the legal and ethical challenges posed by autonomous weapons systems. His research focuses on the intersection of international humanitarian law, human rights, and emerging military technologies. In this episode, Yuval joins Matt Merrill for a wide-ranging conversation. They cover topics including how close we are to fully autonomous lethal weapons, the accountability gap that AI-mediated warfare creates, and what lessons software engineers can draw from these challenges when building consequential AI systems of any kind. Matt Merrill is a software engineering leader with over 20 years of experience building…

People in this episode

Host: Matt Merrill

Guest: Yuval Shany

Topics covered

• autonomous weapons
• artificial intelligence
• military technology
• international law
• ethical frameworks
• accountability in warfare

Keywords

• autonomous weapons
• AI in warfare
• international humanitarian law
• military ethics
• decision support systems
• accountability gap
• software engineering

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Oxford Ethics in AI Institute, UN Human Rights Committee, DEPT® Agency

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