This is a debate article. The opinions expressed are the author’s own.
Lund University has announced that it will be part of a project to develop autonomous drone swarms. The project will be coordinated through the Center for Heterogeneous Adaptive Swarm Systems (CHASS). Linköping University and Örebro University will also be part of the center and help develop these autonomous drone swarms. The autonomous drone swarms will incorporate maritime drones, drones on land and aerial drones, but Lund University’s research will focus on the aerial aspect. In the announcement of Lund participation in the center, it is also very shortly stated that among other uses, ”Military applications are also included within the project.”
While Lund University writes about the supposed appliance of these drone swarms for issues such as environmental monitoring and precision agriculture, it’s the advanced military application that should be getting the most attention. It seems like Lund University has fallen prey to the same militarism that has besieged the rest of Sweden since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. We have seen it with Sweden entering NATO and the DCA-agreement, but to see it gaining ground at the University is an unfortunate development, where also academic life is geared towards this general militarization of Swedish society.
This militarization also has the consequence of going against one of Lund University’s guiding principles, which is ”the question of how the University’s knowledge and expertise can contribute to a better world”. But autonomous drone swarms for military use do not better the world. Were they to be deployed in combat or any such military activity, they would cause immense suffering for people and thus contribute to making the world worse. In that sense the ”guiding” principle was not as guiding as one could hope.
But autonomous drone swarms for military use do not better the world.
Another way this new research conflicts with Lund University’s self-declared principles and values, is the issue of artificial intelligence (AI). The Center for Heterogeneous Adaptive Swarm Systems will also be researching how AI can enhance these drone swarms, though it is not clear what that is going to look like yet.
Unfortunately, we have already seen the horrific results of AI-use on the battlefield. Israel has used AI in its targeting database in Gaza, and the AI-company Palantir has openly declared in a manifesto of sorts that the west should rely on AI as a deterrence. A manifesto that has been described as technofascist. Former researchers at AI-companies such as Anthropic have warned against the immense consequences of AI but have been dismissed by people such as Elon Musk.
Notwithstanding the obvious consequences that this will have for the climate, it is a scary world where deterrence is based upon who has the most vicious AI system, that can do the most damage with the least amount of human oversight.
It is hard to see how all this tunes with the ethical points made in Lund University’s Platform for Strategic Work. How AI-enhanced drone swarms that have military use fits well with points such as ”Democracy and Global Engagement” and ”Defensible and responsible collaborations” is beyond me. And it will be beyond those who might at some point in the future become victims of these AI-enhanced drone swarms.
Our universities should be institutions that make the world better, not ones that make it more unsafe. I urge students, researchers, academics, staff and others to pressure Lund University to pull out of research on autonomous drone swarms.
Mohammad Haydar, student at the University of Copenhagen with a magister degree from Stockholm University
