A two-day international conference, “Humanity at the Crossroads: Autonomous Weapons and the Challenge of Regulation,” hosted by the Austrian government, took place on 29–30 April 2024 in Vienna, Austria in the Hofburg Palace. It was preceded by The Action at the Crossroads Conference, a civil society forum organized by Stop Killer Robots (SKR), the Austrian Red Cross and PAX, in cooperation with the government of Austria. Hayato Yamashita and Sanya Rajpal of SGI participated in both convenings.

On 28 April, “Action at the Crossroads” was held in Palais Wertheim, where a series of panels, discussions and art addressed the issue of autonomous weapons. The exhibits examined four themes: activism through art, what autonomous weapons are, digital dehumanization and new international law.

During a plenary session at the civil society forum, Rajpal spoke on a panel addressing technology development and gaps in regulations. She highlighted that AI and autonomous weapon systems, which are incapable of harnessing ethics and morality in decision-making, should be forbidden from making life-and-death judgements. She also stressed that humanity should use this current time to make a paradigm shift towards collective human dignity.

Meanwhile, Yamashita attended the forum’s interfaith workshop to discuss a faith-based analysis of the challenges of autonomous weapons and ways to engage with faith communities to influence multilateral processes. He shared the idea of “ethical disconnect,” a concept introduced in the peace proposals by SGI President Daisaku Ikeda in which those who direct attacks and those who are targeted are not in the same place. Yamashita emphasized that this situation deprives humanistic emotions, resulting in more inhumane and brutal consequences of war.

Following the civil society forum, over 140 states attended the “Humanity at the Crossroads” conference, with over 1,000 participants from UN agencies, international organizations and civil society, including SGI.

The conference began with opening remarks by H.E. Alexander Schallenberg, Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of the Republic of Austria. He commented, “We cannot let this moment pass without taking action. Now is the time to agree on international rules and norms to ensure human control.”

Over the two days, the conference explored the issues posed by and challenges for regulating autonomous weapons systems from legal, ethical, humanitarian and security perspectives. On the second day of the conference, Yamashita delivered a statement on behalf of SGI emphasizing that technologies used in society, including AI, should be aimed at the overall prosperity of humanity. In particular, he pointed out that life-and-death decisions should never be delegated to machines, calling for an international treaty to prohibit and regulate autonomy in weapons systems to safeguard the rights and dignities of humanity.

The conference concluded with the Austrian government announcing the chair’s summary, which underscores the importance of human control over new technology by stating, “Human control must prevail in the use of force. The delegation to machines of decisions over choice of targets and life and death is an issue that concerns all of us.” The summary also called for the urgent actions of all states and stakeholders to submit their views on autonomous weapons systems to the UN Secretary General as encouraged by the 2023 UNGA Resolution on “Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems,” while considering points raised during the conference and affirming its “strong commitment to work with urgency and with all interested stakeholders for an international legal instrument to regulate autonomous weapons systems.”

On 25 May, to share learnings and outcomes from the “Humanity at the Crossroads” conference, Yamashita joined a webinar hosted by Kansai Soka High School in Osaka, Japan. About 330 first-year students attended the webinar. Yamashita addressed key issues of AWS from the perspectives of international law, gender and bias, and ethics and highlighted the importance of young people engaging in this issue to support the establishment of legally binding instruments to regulate autonomy in weapons systems. Students had learned about autonomous weapons through classes, and they were able to deepen their understanding of the threats and risks posed by AWS. After the webinar, the school conducted a survey and received a number of feedback responses from students, some of which are listed below.

• "The fact that it is so easy to create such a weapon, while they do not exist yet, is very scary. I also thought that the possibility of innocent civilians being targeted was the worst thing that could happen. It is also terrifying to think that the error rate of the face recognition system varies depending on race and gender. Each human life is precious, and I think it is absolutely wrong that people could be killed because of errors."
• "AI has been developed to make our lives more convenient, but I learned that there is a danger of being diverted from the original purpose with the development of autonomous weapons. The most frightening thing is that people do not understand the tragedy of war and the horror of such weapons, unlike nuclear weapons, because there are no victims of autonomous weapons yet. I will keep considering how we can stop autonomous weapons without thinking of it as someone else's problem."
  
• "Although accidents caused by technological malfunctions, such as killings due to malfunctioning or AI misrecognition, could be solved through technological advancement, I feel it is very important to establish laws and regulations as soon as possible."

For further details on the “Humanity at the Crossroads: Autonomous Weapons Systems and the Challenge of Regulation” conference, including the program, statements and the chair’s summary, visit the conference website.