United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has participated in all Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) meetings on autonomous weapons systems. At the 2021 CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (GGE on LAWS), the United Kingdom said that it ‘strongly believes that artificial intelligence (AI) within weapon systems can and must be used lawfully and ethically.’^[1]Statement by the United Kingdom, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 02 December 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS3-02-12-2021-AM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to … Continue reading In the same statement, the United Kingdom said that it ‘opposes the creation and use of systems that would operate without meaningful and context appropriate human involvement throughout their life cycle, the use of such weapons could not satisfy fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.’^[2]Statement by the United Kingdom, GGE on LAWS, 02 December 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS3-02-12-2021-AM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to the full recording & … Continue reading On the implications of autonomous weapon systems, it says that ‘AI and autonomy have the potential to support the better application of the International Humanitarian Law; they can improve the evidence, analysis and timelines of decision making.’^[3]Statement by the United Kingdom, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 02 December 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS3-02-12-2021-AM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to … Continue reading

The United Kingdom does not support the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems. At the Sixth Review Conference of the CCW in 2021, it said that it ‘remains of the view that our discussion has not matured to the point where the commencement of negotiations on a legally binding instrument is feasible or indeed required and we remain firm in our belief that the flexible and principle-based approach of international humanitarian law means that it is ideally suited to cover developments in autonomy.’^[4]Statement by United Kingdom, Sixth Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, 14 December 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/RCHCP6-14-12-2021-PM_mp3_en.html; please … Continue reading

The United Kingdom has invested extensively in research surrounding autonomy in weapons systems.^[5]See, for example, SIPRI (2017), Mapping the development of autonomy in weapon systems, … Continue reading