Blog: Contestations.ai - Panel Discussion "Critical Perspectives on AI, Big Data and Autonomous Weapons"

On 23rd of October 2024, Prof. Ingmar Weber participated as a panelist in the panel on "Critical Perspectives on AI, Big Data and Autonomous Weapons" at the Transdisciplinary Symposium on AI, Human Rights and Warfare in Helsinki.


Panel Description

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data analytics and Automated Decision Making (ADM) are increasingly being used for surveillance, targeting, and autonomous drone warfare, in addition to proliferating misinformation on social media during war and conflicts. Conversely, these technologies are also leveraged for investigation of human rights violations as done by members of Forensic Architecture, Airwars and Bellingcat. How should researchers, scholars, government actors and civil society engage and act critically to highlight, investigate, and prevent the use of AI-based systems in perpetuating human rights violations and warfare and devise critical policies and practices that mitigate harms to society today?


The other panelists were:

  • Mike Ananny: Associate Professor of Communication and Journalism @ USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
  • Sarah Ciston: Associated Researcher in AI & Society Lab @ Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society
  • Jessica Dorsey: Assistant Professor of International and European Law and Project Leader @ Realities of Algorithmic Warfare (RAW)
  • Lauren Gould: Assistant Professor in Conflict Studies and Project Leader @ Realities of Algorithmic Warfare (RAW)
  • Christian Heck: Assistant Professor in Aesthetic and New Technologies / Experimental Computer Science @ Academy of Media Arts Cologne
  • Neil Christopher Renic: Researcher @ Centre for Military Studies at the University of Copenhagen


The Panel was moderated by:

Nitin Sawhney: Professor, Filmmaker & Director of CRAI-CIS Research Group @ Department of Computer Science, Aalto University

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