On 25–26 February, SIPRI, in partnership with the Pathfinder Foundation in Colombo, Sri Lanka, held the third in a series of workshops on ‘Mapping the Impact of Machine Learning and Autonomy on Strategic Stability and Nuclear Risk’.
With a focus on doctrinal and technical dynamics in South Asia, the workshop brought together over 30 academic, diplomatic, legal, military and technical experts from China, India, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, the United States and the European Union.
The two-day workshop—consisting of presentations and breakout scenario-building exercises—offered participants a greater understanding of how machine learning and autonomy are shaping security environments such as the Indian Ocean and the Indian subcontinent, among others, and how to take steps towards confidence-building measures to mitigate potential escalation and miscalculation.
The workshop was led by Dr Petr Topychkanov, Dr Vincent Boulanin and Ms Su Fei. The first workshop in the series was held at SIPRI in Stockholm on 22–23 May 2018. The second workshop was held in Beijing on 6–7 September 2018. The workshops findings will feed into the final project report, which will be available in the autumn of 2019. A series of related essays will be published throughout the duration of the project.
About the project
The two-year project on ‘Mapping the Impact of Machine Learning and Autonomy on Strategic Stability and Nuclear Risk’ is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. It aims to gain a better understanding of the potential impact of the emerging technologies on strategic stability among all nuclear-armed states and their neighbours.