When Code Meets Combat: AI Ethics and Just War Theory
a research presentation by McGillicuddy Humanities Center Fellow Neil Rockey
Friday, April 18, 2025, at 3:30 PM, Hill Auditorium, 165 Barrows Hall, University of Maine
| Neil Rockey is a 3rd-year International Affairs (Security Concentration) major McGillicuddy Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellow whose research project When Code Meets Combat: AI Ethics and Just War Theory investigates what happens when algorithms influence life-or-death decisions in wartime. As AI systems are increasingly used in defense, they challenge centuries-old just war principles in unprecedented ways and raise pressing questions. Who bears responsibility when an AI-assisted strike goes wrong? Can machines truly distinguish between combatants and civilians? Using AI ethics principles and an examination of the just war tradition from Augustine to Autonomous Weapons Systems, this research attempts to answer these questions and more grounding discussion in existing technologies and near-horizon developments rather than speculating about distant futures to offer a balanced assessment of how the bellum iustum must evolve to address these emerging capabilities. Rockey is advised by Dr. Manuel Wörsdörfer, Assistant Professor of Management and Computing Ethics. |