A method for ethical AI in Defence: A case study on developing trustworthy autonomous systems

What does it mean to be responsible and responsive when developing and deploying trusted autonomous systems in Defence? In this short reflective article, we describe a case study of building a trusted autonomous system - Athena AI - within an industry-led, government-funded project with diverse collaborators and stakeholders. Using this case study, we draw out lessons on the value and impact of embedding responsible research and innovation-aligned, ethics-by-design approaches and principles throughout the development of technology at high translation readiness levels.

Developing a Trusted Human-AI Network for Humanitarian Benefit

Humans and artificial intelligences (AI) will increasingly participate digitally and physically in conflicts, yet there is a lack of trusted communications across agents and platforms. For example, humans in disasters and conflict already use messaging and social media to share information, however, international humanitarian relief organisations treat this information as unverifiable and untrustworthy. AI may reduce the 'fog-of-war' and improve outcomes, however AI implementations are often brittle, have a narrow scope of application and wide ethical risks. Meanwhile, human error causes significant civilian harms even by combatants committed to complying with international humanitarian law. AI offers an opportunity to help reduce the tragedy of war and deliver humanitarian aid to those who need it. In this paper we consider the integration of a communications protocol (the 'Whiteflag protocol'), distributed ledger technology, and information fusion with artificial intelligence (AI), to improve conflict communications called 'Protected Assurance Understanding Situation and Entities' (PAUSE). Such a trusted human-AI communication network could provide accountable information exchange regarding protected entities, critical infrastructure; humanitarian signals and status updates for humans and machines in conflicts.