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Death by Algorithm

Death by Algorithm

Written by: Sune With
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 A series on autonomous weapons systems, drones and AI in the military domain. Experts from various disciplines share their research and discuss the black box, responsibility, human-machine interaction, and the future of legal and ethical frameworks for AI in war. How is war regulated? Can the ethics of war be programmed into machines? Does it change how we fight? Can war be cleaned up by technology? How can soldiers understand the systems? Will AI systems be the commanders of tomorrow? Why not just let the robots fight? Episodes are narration and interviews and not chronologicalSune With Politics & Government
Episodes
  • The Frontier of Automated Killing feat. Elke Schwarz

    The Frontier of Automated Killing feat. Elke Schwarz
    Dec 9 2025
    Is AI just a tool? What is the difference between human cognition and systems logic? How do the automation and routinisation of war change how we fight and think of our enemy? Does Israel's target-generating AI systems work in the war in Gaza, and what is the result so far?Professor of Political Theory Elke Schwarz discusses her research, the black box, meaningful human control, programming ethics into machines, and the future of regulating autonomous weapons systems. Shownotes:Producer: Sune With, sunewith@cas.au.dkCover artwork: Sebastian GramAbraham, Yural, November 30. 2023, “A mass assassination factory: Inside Israels calculated bombing of Gaza”, +972Magazine.https://www.972mag.com/mass-assassination-factory-israel-calculated-bombing-gaza/ Abraham, Yural, April 3. 2024, “Lavender”:The AI machine directing Israels bombing spree in Gaza, +972Magazine.https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/ Davis, Harry; McKernan, Bentham; Sabbagh, Dan, December 1, 2023, “The Gospel: how Israel uses AI to select bombing targets in Gaza”, The Guardian.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/01/the-gospel-how-israel-uses-ai-to-select-bombing-targets Frankel Pratt, Simon, May 2. 2024, “When AI Decides Who Lives and Dies”, Foreign Policy.https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/05/02/israel-military-artificial-intelligence-targeting-hamas-gaza-deaths-lavender/ Gritten, David, October 9. 2023, “Israel´s military says it fully controls communities on Gaza border”, BBC.https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67050127 Guardian, April 3. 2024, “Israel Defence Forces´ response to claims about the use of “Lavender” AI database in Gaza”.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/israel-defence-forces-response-to-claims-about-use-of-lavender-ai-database-in-gaza Krauss, Joseph, February 5. 2025, “Gaza is in ruins, and it´s unclear how it will be rebuilt”, Associated Press.https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-gaza-strip-reconstruction-trump-d6a6ff45583b7959403a8615469866d5 McKernan, Bethan; Davies, Harry, 3 April 2024, “The machine did it coldly´:Israel used AI to identify 37.000 Hamas targets. The Guardian.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/israel-gaza-ai-database-hamas-airstrikes No Comment TV, October 9. 2023, “We are fighting human animal”, said Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant” (Accessed March 27. 2025)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbPdR3E4hCk Schwarz, Elke, March 14. 2024, “Devalued Humanity: The Status of Human Life in Times of Nihilistic War”, Opinio Juris.https://opiniojuris.org/2024/03/14/devalued-humanity-the-status-of-human-life-in-times-of-nihilistic-war/ Schwarz, Elke, 2021, “Autonomous Weapons Systems, Artificial Intelligence, and the Problem of meaningful Human Control”, The Philosophical Journal of Conflict and Violence, Vol. V Issue 1. Schwarz, Elke; Renic, Neil, 2023, “Crimes of Dispassion: Autonomous Weapons and the Moral Challenge of Systematic Killing”, Ethics and International Affairs, 37, no. 3, pp. 321-343. Schwarz, Elke, 2018, “Death Machines – The ethics of violent technologies”, Manchester University Press. Schwarz, Elke, April 12. 2024, “Gaza war: Israel using AI to identify human targets raising fears that innocents are being caught in the net”, The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/gaza-war-israel-using-ai-to-identify-human-targets-raising-fears-that-innocents-are-being-caught-in-the-net-227422 UN, OHCHR, November 14. 2024, “UN Special Committee finds Israel´s warfare methods in Gaza consistent with genocide, including use of starvation as weapons of war”, UN. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/11/un-special-committee-finds-israels-warfare-methods-gaza-consistent-genocide UN, UN News, November 22. 2024, “2024 deadliest year ever for aid workers, UN humanitarian office reports”, UN.https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/11/1157371 Music: Sofus Forsberg
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    1 hr and 14 mins
  • From Practice to (Auto)Norms feat. Ingvild Bode

    From Practice to (Auto)Norms feat. Ingvild Bode
    Nov 18 2025
    Practices create norms, and words can shape reality. This applies to the debate on autonomous weapons and AI in the military domain. It is significant whether the technology precedes public deliberation and regulations. Additionally, it is crucial whether we refer to AI in the military as "decision support systems", "emerging technology", "autonomous weapons", or "killer robots". Professor and recipient of the Danish Elite Research Prize 2025, Ingvild Bode describes her research project, AutoNorms, and how it tracks discourse and development on autonomous weapons. Furthermore, Ingvild shares her perspectives on the black box, meaningful human control, ethical machines, and the future of regulation.Shownotes: Producer and host: Sune With sunewith@cas.au.dkCoverart: Sebastian GramReferences and literature - AutoNorms, PI Ingvild Bode (Accessed May 13. 2025)https://www.autonorms.eu/ - Arai, Koki; Matsumoto, Masakazu, 2023, ”Public perception of autonomous lethal weapons systems”, AI and Ethics (2024) 4:451–462https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43681-023-00282-9 - Bode, Ingvild. 2024. "Emergent Normativity: Communities of Practice, Technology, and Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems". Global Studies Quarterly 4(1), https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksad073 - Bode, Ingvild.; Nadibaidze, Anna, 2024, ”Autonomous Drones”. In J. P. Rogers (Ed.), De Gruyter Handbook on Drone Warfare, pp. 369-384, De Gruyter. - Bode, Ingvild; Bhila, Ishmael; September 3. 2024, ”The problem of algorithmic bias in AI-based military decision support”, Humanitarian Law and Policy, ICRC.https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2024/09/03/the-problem-of-algorithmic-bias-in-ai-based-military-decision-support-systems/ - Bode, Ingvild. 2023. “Practice-Based and Public-Deliberative Normativity: Retaining Human Control over the Use of Force.” European Journal of International Relations 29(4), 990-1016, https://doi.org/10.1177/13540661231163392 - Bode, Ingvild, and Tom Watts. 2023. Loitering Munitions and Unpredictability: Autonomy in Weapon Systems and Challenges to Human Control. Odense, London: SDU Center for War Studies, Royal Holloway Centre for International Security. Link - Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, 2021, “Killer Robots: Survey Shows Opposition Remains Strong”, Humans Rights Watch (Accessed May 14. 2025) https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/02/killer-robots-survey-shows-opposition-remains-strong - Deeney, Chris, 2019, “Six in Ten (61%) Respondents Across 26 Countries Oppose the Use of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems”, Ipsos (Accessed May 14. 2025). https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/human-rights-watch-six-in-ten-oppose-autonomous-weapons - HuMach, PI Ingvild Bode. (Accessed May 13. 2025)https://www.sdu.dk/en/forskning/forskningsenheder/samf/cws/cws-activities/projects/humach - IEEE Standart Association, A Research Group on Issues of Autonomy and AI in Defense Systems. (2024). ”A Framework for Human Decision Making Through the Lifecycle of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems in Defense Applications”. New York, NY: IEEE SA (Accessed April 2. 2025)https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10707139 - IEEE Standards Association (Accessed April 2. 2025)https://standards.ieee.org/ - Nadibaidze, Anna; Bode, Ingvild; Zhang, Qiaochu, 2024, “AI in Military Decision Support Systems: A Review of Developments and Debates”, Center for War Studies, SDU. - Overton Window, Wikipedia (Accessed May 13. 2025) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window - Renic, Neil and Christenson, Johan, 2024, “Drones, the Russo-Ukrainian War, and the Future of Armed Conflict”, CMS Report. https://cms.polsci.ku.dk/english/publications/drones-the-russo-ukrainian-war-and-the-future-of-armed-conflict/. - The Overton Window, Mackinac Center for Public Policy (Accessed May 13. 2025)https://www.mackinac.org/OvertonWindowMusic: Sofus Forsberg
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    56 mins
  • Just War feat. Iben Yde and Claus Borg Reinholdt

    Just War feat. Iben Yde and Claus Borg Reinholdt
    Aug 18 2025
    Just war means a justified war. But what justifies a war? Can letting machines kill be justified? How and where is war regulated? And how are the philosophical and legal frameworks of war connected? Iben Yde, lawyer and consultant at Rethink Advisory, explains and gives an account of her role as a military lawyer and advisor.Claus Borg Reinholdt, correspondent for TV2 Denmark, tells a horrifying story of a drone siege of Kherson, Ukraine.Besides explaining how war is regulated, Iben Yde provides her perspectives on the black box problem, the notion of meaningful human control, programming ethics into machines, and the future of regulating autonomous weapons through the CCW and GGE, UN system. Shownotes:Producer and host: Sune With sunewith@cas.au.dkCover artwork: Sebastian GramArkin, C. Ronald, 2009, “Governing Lethal Behaviour in Autonomous Robots”, CRC Press.Arkin, Ronald C., 2010, ”The Case for Ethical Autonomy in Unmanned Systems”, Journal of Military Ethics, 9:4, 332-341Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) (Accessed Feb 25. 2025).https://disarmament.unoda.org/the-convention-on-certain-conventional-weapons/Geneva Conventions and the rules of war with comments. ICRC (Accessed Feb 25. 2025).https://www.icrc.org/en/law-and-policy/geneva-conventions-and-their-commentariesGroup of Governmental Experts, UN (Accessed Feb 25. 2025).https://disarmament.unoda.org/group-of-governmental-experts/Orend, Brian, 2016, "War", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2016Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.) (Accessed Feb 25. 2025) https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/war/ - 2.2RE-AIM Blueprint for Action, 2024 (Accessed Feb 25. 2025). https://www.reaim2024.kr/home/reaimeng/board/bbsDetail.do?encMenuId=4e57325766362f626e5179454e6d6e4d4a4d33507a773d3d&encBbsMngNo=366e794c7a644d756342425668444f393053755142673d3d&encBbsNo=6f784e4542386f7735767465766a6531556f4b6149413d3d&ctlPageNow=1&schKind=bbsTtlCn&schWord=%23thisReinholdt, Claus Borg, November 11. 2024, News story on drone attacks in Kherson, Ukraine (Accessed Feb 28. 2025)https://nyheder.tv2.dk/video/2024-11-11-russerne-terroriserer-lokalbefolkningen-med-droneangreb-fortaeller-tv-2-korrespondent-6364543133112Responsibility to Protect, R2P, UN, 2005 (Accessed Feb 25. 2025).https://www.un.org/en/genocide-prevention/responsibility-protect/aboutRethink Advisory, 2025 (Accessed Feb 25. 2025). https://www.rethinkadvisory.dk/United Nations Charter, 26 June 1945 (Accessed Feb 25. 2025)https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charterUnited Nations, 11. February 2025, “Short-range drones: The deadliest threat to civilians in Ukraine” (Assessed 12. March 2025)https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1160016Walzer, Michael, 1977, 2015, “Just and Unjust Wars – a moral argument with historical illustrations”, Basic Books, fifth edition.Yde, Iben, Galasz, Dahlberg, 2021, ”Smart krig – Militær anvendelse af kunstig intelligens”, DJØF’s forlag. Music: Sofus Forsberg
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    57 mins
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