Deep Dive Workshop at the Global AI Policy Research Summit 2025 on November 14th, 9:30 – 12:30 hosted at Panorama, Mondai | House of AI, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft).
Workshop leads: Nitin Sawhney (Uniarts Research Institute, Helsinki) and Petter Ericson (Umeå University)
Invited Expert Panelists
Taylor Kate Woodcock LL.M., Doctoral Researcher in Public International Law, Asser Institute
Virginia Dignum, Professor in Responsible Artificial Intelligence and Director of the AI Policy Lab, Umeå University and Member of UN High Level Advisory Body on AI
Martine Jaarsma, Doctoral Researcher, International Humanitarian Law, Military uses of AI and Critical Legal Studies, Department of Political Science, University of Antwerp
Ilse Verdiesen, Research Fellow, Netherlands Defense Academy (NLDA) and Chief of Staff Joint IV Commando (Col)
Megan Karlshoej-Pedersen, Policy Specialist at Airwars (presenting online)
Rainer Rehak, Research Associate, Wiezenbaum Institute for the Networked Society
Abstract: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data analytics, and Automated Decision Making (ADM) are increasingly being used for surveillance, targeting, and autonomous or semiautonomous drone warfare, in addition to proliferating misinformation on social media during war and conflicts. Conversely, related technologies are also leveraged for investigation of human rights violations e.g. as done by members of Forensic Architecture, Interpret, Airwars and Bellingcat. Meanwhile, campaigns such as Stop Killed Robots are working through the UN and other forums towards an international ban on, at minimum, Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS). How should researchers, scholars, government actors and civil society engage and act critically to highlight, investigate, and prevent the use of AI-based systems in perpetuating human rights violations in and out of warfare and devise critical policies and practices that mitigate harms to society today?
The current AI Act has many exceptions to the use of AI for policing, surveillance and military applications, while there are hardly any enforceable provisions related to use of EU technologies globally that violate human rights. This workshop engages inside and critical perspectives from military officers, AI researchers and scholars in International Humanitarian Law (IHL), human rights activists, Members of Parliament, and NGOs, dealing with these concerns. We will examine these aspects in the context of ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, among others globally, from the role of AI for spreading misinformation in war, to autonomous warfare, and civic / human rights violations.
Our aim was to encourage inter-disciplinary and critical theorizing on what policies, regulations and practices are urgently needed to address these emerging concerns, while developing an action agenda for future research, concrete policy proposal work, and pragmatic societal outcomes.
Workshop summary white paper coming soon!
Workshop Outcomes
- Implications for Policy Research Agenda
- Barriers and obstacles to enforcing / moderating use of AI in warfare – conventions, regulations and international treaties? What can we do to highlight / change them?
- Fostering new collaborations within the group for research, policy action or advocacy
- Planning the next Contestations.AI symposium (in 2026) and opportunities for similar workshops at other conferences?
- Concrete Action Items:
- GlobAIPol signing up to Stop Killer Robots?
- Whitepaper, opinion piece or journal article?
- Stakeholder deliberations (as follow-up workshop)?
Related Events:
Contestations.AI: Transdisciplinary Symposium on AI, Human Rights and Warfare, Helsinki, Oct 23, 2024.
Related Articles and Reports:
(some initial references, more will be added here; suggestions welcome)
Op-Ed: Regulating military use of AI is in everyone’s interest, Michael C. Horowitz, Financial Times, October 13, 2025.
Responsible by Design: Strategic Guidance Report on the Risks, Opportunities, and Governance of Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain. Global Commission on Responsible Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain (GC REAIM), September 2025.
Coveri, Andrea, et al. Big Tech and the US Digital-Military-Industrial Complex. Intereconomics, vol. 60, no. 2, Sciendo, 2025, pp. 81-87.
The rolling text of the Group of Governmental Experts working a Convention of Certain Conventional Weapons, in particular on the legal status of Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems.
Nitin Sawhney 