The informal consultations on lethal autonomous weapons systems at the UN in May 2025 focused on legal, humanitarian, security, and ethical issues related to these technologies. Privacy International highlighted significant concerns around data use, privacy, algorithmic biases, and the risks of integrating data-intensive systems into weapons development. This integration raises alarms not only in warfare but across societal domains like surveillance and border control. The discussions underscored the need for stringent data protection measures, as inadequate oversight could lead to hazardous consequences in deployment scenarios.
Fundamental concerns exist around these technologies, not only in the context of armed conflicts, but also in relation to border control, profiling, and surveillance.
It is the integration of a data-intensive system that renders a weapon autonomous by adding critical functions to it.
These concerns are not only relevant. In the context of autonomous weapons, they become lethal.
Data-intensive systems that enable autonomy in weapons are based on vast amounts of data for their initial development and also continuous learning phases.
Collection
[
|
...
]