On 6–7 September, SIPRI, in partnership with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing (CICIR), held the second 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 East Asia, the workshop brought together over 35 academic, diplomatic, legal, military, and technical experts from China, India, Japan, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.
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 such security environs as the South China Sea, Korean Peninsula, among other domains, and how to take steps towards confidence-building measures to mitigate potential escalation and miscalculation.
The workshop was led by Dr Lora Saalman, Dr Vincent Boulanin, Dr Petr Topychkanov and Ms Su Fei. The first workshop in the series was held at SIPRI on 22–23 May. The workshop 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 neighbors.