SG – Drones, AI and Cognitive Shifts in Warfare

About Drones, AI and Cognitive Shifts in Warfare

Warfare has never been so clean and precise. Or better said, – that is what the emergence of emerging technological innovations promises. Assistant Professor Jessica Dorsey’s legal expertise on the military use of drones and AI (Artificial Intelligence), has her focusing on the way we think about warfare and how that is shifting. Tonight, she will explore its cognitive effects on us. How do real and perceived notions of distance figure into this? What can be said of the sliding scales of the permissive interpretation on the ability to use force?

She will consider the relationship between these technologies and their governance against a backdrop of how to safeguard human responsibility, ensuring that the complexities of proportionality assessments remain rooted in human reasoning and legal compliance. The use of AI in military targeting can be a game changer, not just because of certain advancements it may bring, but also because of the ways it could be engendering shifts in how we make decisions. And in this, more than just how conflicts are taking shape is at stake. She will explore with us how the integration of AI into military targeting operations raises significant concerns about the balance between human judgement and algorithmic decision-making. Enrich your perspectives of political acceptability, moral responsibility, risk, policy, and legal obligations whilst gaining insights into what the shifting context of these developments means for our cognitive loads. Join us when we put algorithmic warfare in the spotlight and develop a broader understanding of its impacts.

About lecture series Normalising the Abnormal

Developments which keep overtaking each other on the world stage have been challenging our emotional stamina and pressed hard on our moral compasses. It has even led many to tune out of following the news. This series explores psychological and social numbing which has crept into processing what we know and how we feel whilst moral alarm bells may be blaring inside many heads and hearts. Studium Generale invites you to unpack the personal and collective mechanisms at play in normalising the abnormal.

About Jessica Dorsey

Jessica Dorsey, J.D., LL.M., is an Assistant Professor of International Law at Utrecht University. With a background as international lawyer with expertise in international humanitarian law, human rights law and public international law, her current research focuses on the legitimacy of military operations in light of increasing autonomy in warfare. She teaches international law courses at University College Utrecht and the Conflict and Security track of the Public International Law master’s program. She is also part of the core teaching team of the interdisciplinary Open-Source Global Justice Investigations Lab.

Additionally, Jessica is a renowned legal scholar and practitioner on issues related to the use of force, especially in the context of drone warfare, having worked in the field for more than 15 years carrying out research and advocacy at the national, regional and international levels.

She leads the Realities of Algorithmic Warfare project together with Dr. Lauren Gould; is an Executive Board Member of Airwars and Chair of the Dutch Airwars Foundation; and the Managing Editor of the distinguished international law blog Opinio Juris.