The Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKI), in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hosted a panel discussion titled, ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI), Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS) and Contemporary Challenges’ at the LKI Lighthouse Auditorium on last week. 

It was attended by diplomats, representatives of international organisations, senior officials of relevant ministries and agencies, military personnel, leading researchers, and university students.

Delivering the keynote address at the event, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Additional Secretary for East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa Yasoja Gunasekera, underscored the urgent need for global action to regulate Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Weapons Systems. She emphasised that while AI has become integral to numerous sectors, its growing presence on the battlefield raises profound concerns regarding its application in weapon systems. She noted that Sri Lanka strongly supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument to prohibit and regulate LAWS and supports the UN Secretary General and the President of the ICRC’s joint appeal to establish new rules on AWS by 2026. Delivering the opening remarks, Head of Delegation of the ICRC in Sri Lanka Severine Chappaz, focused on the continued relevance of International Humanitarian Law. Stressing that the main responsibility to apply IHL in good faith lies with States to mitigate human suffering, she underlined the importance of making IHL a national and international political priority. ICRC Regional Legal Advisor Prof. Andrei Kozik, highlighted the novel humanitarian and legal challenges posed by technological developments including AI and AWS. Delving into the subject, he drew attention to the unique characteristics of AWS that heighten risks for civilians and raise challenges for IHL compliance. In his presentation, Prof. Kozik also clarified the ICRC’s position on AWS, stating that the ICRC calls for new rules that prohibit the use of ‘unpredictable’ and ‘anti-personnel’ autonomous weapons systems. It was noted that in this context, ‘unpredictability’ refers to the discriminatory nature of AWS weapons while ‘anti-personnel’ refers to autonomous weapons designed or used to target humans directly. The ICRC’s report titled ‘International Humanitarian Law and the challenges of contemporary armed conflicts’ was referenced as a source to obtain an overview of some of the challenges for IHL posed by contemporary armed conflicts.  The report broadly underscores the humanitarian consequences that could result from the potential loss of human control over the use of force in armed conflict.