Episode 6 - Who is responsible for lethal autonomous weapons?

Lethal Autonomous Weapons: 10 things we want to know

Paola Gaeta and Marta Bo interview Dustin Lewis, Research Director of the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, where he leads research on contemporary challenges concerning armed conflict, including algorithmic warfare. In this episode, he tackles the issue of who bears responsibility for the violations of the laws of warfare committed when lethal autonomous weapons are used in the targeting process.

Dustin Lewis is the author of ‘Preconditions for Applying International Law to Autonomous Cyber Capabilities’, in Rain Liivoja and Ann Väljataga (eds), Autonomous Cyber Capabilities under International Law, 106-125 (NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence 2021), ‘On “Responsible A.I.” in War: Exploring Preconditions for Respecting International Law in Armed Conflict’, in Silja Vöneky et al (eds), The Cambridge Handbook of Responsible Artificial Intelligence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (CUP forthcoming 2021), Three Pathways to Secure Greater Respect for International Law concerning War Algorithms (Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, Legal Commentary, 2020) and War-Algorithm Accountability (with Gabriella Blum and Naz K. Modirzadeh) (Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, Research Briefing, 2016).

For more information on the Lethal Autonomous Weapons and War Crimes research project, visit our website https://lawsandwarcrimes.com