GENEVA
Artificial intelligence is already transforming the nature of warfare and global security in unpredictable ways, the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) director warned Thursday at its Global Conference on AI, Security and Ethics, calling for urgent and collective action to regulate its military applications.
“AI is reshaping the landscape of conflict and global security as we speak, and in ways that we’re only beginning to grasp,” Robin Geiss said, opening the two-day conference at the UN Office in Geneva.
Geiss cautioned that the rapid development of AI is outpacing efforts to govern it and emphasized that the global community is no longer debating whether AI will be used in military contexts. “It is already being used,” he said.
He warned that the stakes “are extraordinarily high” and said: “AI’s application in warfare and defense could enhance security or fuel instability. It could strengthen decision-making or weaken accountability. It could reinforce international law or challenge its very foundations.”
Security is “not a zero-sum” game, he said and highlighted the growing risk of AI-enabled military technologies lowering the threshold for conflict and increasing unpredictability.
The conference also marked the expansion of its RAISE (The Roundtable for AI, Security and Ethics) initiative, a multi-stakeholder platform supported by Microsoft, to address AI’s role in security through collaborative and innovative dialogue formats.
Delivering a message on behalf of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu said: “Artificial Intelligence is profoundly reshaping how we live, work and communicate … but unregulated AI also presents unprecedented risks.”
She emphasized that “life and death situations must never be left to chance, code or corporate interest,” stressing the need for human control guided by international law and ethics.
The event follows a landmark UN General Assembly resolution on AI in the military domain – which was adopted in December – and brings together global experts to generate actionable insights on responsible AI governance.
“Governance is not just about restrictions … it is very much about setting the preconditions for security, for predictability, for trust, for peace and prosperity,” Geiss said.
