Dr. Magdalena Pacholska

Asser Institute (University of Amsterdam).

Magda is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Postdoctoral Fellow working on the project entitled “Implementing International Responsibility for AI in Military Practice” within the DILEMA project  at the Asser Institute (University of Amsterdam).

Before joining the Asser Institute, Magda worked as a legal adviser at the Polish General Command of the Armed Forces, where she focused on the legal aspects of interoperability in combined joint operations. Magda obtained her Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as part of the Human Rights under Pressure interdisciplinary research training group. She has been a visiting scholar at the Free University of Berlin, and the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory International Law. 

Magda also holds an LL.M. in International Criminal Law from the University of Amsterdam (joint program with Columbia Law School), a first degree in Law from the University of Warsaw and a MA in National Security from the Warsaw Military Academy. 

TITLE: A Lawyer’s Take on Military Artificial Intelligence: Beyond the ‘Killer Robots’

SHORT ABSTRACT:

Weapon systems with autonomous functionalities, often alarmingly referred to as ‘killer robots’, have been subject to heated debate for over a decade. From the beginning, the discussion about their legality has been characterized by over-hyped narratives, and widespread misconceptions of how technological advancements, including artificial intelligence (AI), have been augmenting human capabilities in the military domain for decades. This brief presentation will cast some light on military AI from an international law perspective.