On 22–23 May, SIPRI held the first in a series of workshops on ‘Mapping the impact of machine learning and autonomy on strategic stability and nuclear risk’ in Stockholm.
With a focus on European and trans-Atlantic dynamics, the workshop facilitated a discussion exploring the extent to which machine learning and autonomy may become the focus of an arms race among nuclear-armed states and how this might impact their calculations of strategic stability and nuclear risk at the regional and trans-regional level.
The event was attended by over 35 academics, government representatives, military and technical experts from China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Dr Vincent Boulanin, Dr Petr Topychkanov, Dr Lora Saalman and Ms Fei Su led the workshop. This project report with final findings 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.