Responsible AI and Civilian Protection in Armed Conflict

Daniel R. Mahanty & Kailee Hilt

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Introduction

In the last annual report (2023) on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, the UN Secretary-General described the situation for civilians in armed conflict in the previous year as “resoundingly grim.” Over the course of 2022, thousands of civilians died and millions more suffered from the impact of wars.2 By the time of the report’s release in the spring of 2023, it appeared that the scope and severity of civilian harm in 2024 would be even worse. The report also arrived amid a growing crisis of public confidence in international humanitarian law, caused by the pervasive and wanton disregard for its principles exhibited by some states and the tepid compliance modelled by others — with a dearth of meaningful accountability on both sides. All the while, disparate levels of concern among Western states for civilians in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine had led to charges of double standards and hypocrisy.

Against this backdrop (a mere six days after the release of the report), the United States published an updated version of its Political Declaration on Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy, replete with an expanded list of supporting states (US Department of State 2023). While the political declaration makes only one explicit reference to the goal of protecting civilians (and that made only in the context of the use of AI and autonomy), several of its elements serve that goal. By committing to use AI in adherence with international law, the declaration’s signatories agree to abide by those obligations under international humanitarian law serving to protect civilians (for example, distinction, proportionality and necessity), along with the relevant tenets of human rights law. With its reference to avoiding unintended bias, the declaration also infers the PoC from harm resulting from the biased interpretation of data (for instance, when distinguishing civilian or civilian objects from legitimate targets in military attacks).