Ethical and Political Perspectives on Emerging Digital Technologies

https://ict4peace.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/ICT4Peace-2022-ConvergingDigitalTech-5-1.pdf

Regina Surber’s deep concern for human rights and the ethical dimension of the rapid technological developments in Artificial Intelligence, brought her to ICT4Peace’s attention in 2016. In particular, when she encouraged and helped the Foundation to further pursue its initial work on AI, Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS), Emerging and Converging Technologies and Peace Time Threats.

Her pioneering publications and lectures that followed, helped to inform the international community on the risks of Autonomous Technology (AT) and Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS), and she contributed – through ICT4Peace – her message to the legal and policy debates within the international arms control framework of the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (UN CCW).

Regina, along with other colleagues at ICT4Peace, demonstrated at an early stage that LAWS are not the only manifestation of the security risks of AT, but also other emerging technologies, such as quantum computing, additive manufacturing, or biotechnology, such that these may – in her own words – converge into a new weapons landscape, and demonstrated, that these emerging technologies not only have effects during armed conflicts but also during peace time.

Through her research and writings, she demonstrated very well that new weapon systems do not always fit within our traditional concept of state sovereignty and do not only impact State security, but also affect human security as well. This is because these weapons systems impact numerous aspects of individuals’ lives including, but not limited to, our data security, privacy, autonomy, or the (truth or falsehood of) available information. After the outbreak of Corona she was one of the few scholars who warned early on, that the many government’s reliance on emerging technologies to contain the pandemic, may severely infringe on the right to privacy, and possibly mark the transition into a surveillance society.

It is for these reasons that she is calling for a rethinking and a reshaping of traditional architectures both on the level of international arms control and disarmament, as well as at the level of national and international governance. To support these processes she urges the integration of education and training on ethics and technology into educational systems around the globe.

Regina’s important contribution to the better understanding of the potential threats of emerging and converging technologies and her human rights advocacy work is profoundly important for the international (human) security landscape, as this compilation demonstrates.

Daniel Stauffacher, Founder and President ICT4Peace Foundation