New publication > See Spot save lives: fear, humanitarianism, and war in the development of robot quadrupeds — November 25, 2021: A new article by Jeremy Moses and Geoffrey Ford in the journal Digital War highlights the use of humanitarian justifications to overcome public negativity about robot quadrupeds.

Welcoming Daniel Rance, Data Science Summer Project — November 22, 2021: We are pleased to welcome Daniel Rance who joins us as a researcher over summer as part of the Masters of Applied Data Science at UC. More to follow!

Visualising themes in debates about autonomous weapons — November 19, 2021: An interactive overview and visual guide to features of the debates surrounding lethal autonomous weapons.

Lecture by Amy Fletcher: Lethal Autonomous Weapons and Future Warfare — November 2, 2021: Amy Fletcher gave a lecture at the Kentucky Center for Veteran Studies. The lecture introduced the global debate on LAWS and discussed the implications of AWS for the future of warfare.

Preview: Visualising themes in debates about autonomous weapons — October 22, 2021: An early view of our latest work visualising important features of public discourse on LAWS and how these debates are structured and connect across domains.

Blog 04: Drawing Autonomy in Australian Defence Documents — October 14, 2021: Sian Troath's latest blog post on mentions of autonomy in Australian defence documents.

Blog 03: Explore representations of robots in popular culture with Robot Dreams — September 22, 2021: A blog post from Geoff Ford on the ideas, method, and madness of Robot Dreams.

Robot Dreams : Robots discuss robots on film — September 16, 2021: Explore themes related to robots in popular culture and see and hear connections between robots, war, violence and threat in popular imagination with Robot Dreams.

Blog 02: Human Starts the Loop? — August 27, 2021: This post from Sian Troath examines the use of the term 'human starts the loop' in Australian planning documents.

Mapping LAWS project welcomes Dr Sian Troath to UC and the College of Arts — August 25, 2021: We warmly welcome Dr Sian Troath to the Mapping LAWS project and the University of Canterbury.

New Zealand could take a global lead in controlling the development of ‘killer robots’ — so why isn’t it? — August 19, 2021: Analysis by Jeremy Moses, Geoff Ford and Sian Troath on New Zealand’s position on autonomous weapons in The Conversation.

Blog 01: Introducing the Mapping Laws Project — August 5, 2021: Kia ora koutou and welcome to our blog! Read on to find out more about Mapping LAWS and our plans for the coming months.

Lethal Autonomous Weapons - Should we TERMINATE the AI Arms Race? — July 14, 2021: Amy Fletcher spoke at a NOVA scienceNOW Science Café in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Café Scentifique - Killer robots and the meaning of “meaningful human control” — June 2, 2021: Jeremy Moses and Geoffrey Ford spoke at a Café Scientific event hosted by the French Embassy and University of Canterbury.

Disarm Kōrero - The challenges of regulating autonomous weapons systems — June 2, 2021: Jeremy Moses spoke at a Disarmament and Security Centre Aotearoa NZ event with Edwina Hughes (Campaign to Stop Killer Robots).

Is ‘Spot’ a good dog? Why we’re right to worry about unleashing robot quadrupeds — May 4, 2021: Jeremy Moses and Geoff Ford discuss research on public sentiment and the marketing of robot quadrupeds in The Conversation.

The Fog of Swarms - Analysing the Political and Military Discourse of Lethal Autonomous Drone Swarms — On April 8, 2021, Jeremy Moses and Geoff Ford presented a paper at ISA2021 as part of a panel on “Dynamics of Drone Warfare: Media, War, and Conflict”.

ISA2021 Roundtable “Ethics of War and Peace in Theory and Practice” — April 7, 2021 - Jeremy Moses discussed his work on just war, humanitarianism and lethal autonomous weapons as part of the ISA2021 roundtable on “Ethics of War and Peace in Theory and Practice”.

From Robot Quadrupeds to Drone Swarms - using Digital Methods to analyse debates on Lethal Autonomous Weapons — On March 26, 2021, Geoff Ford and Jeremy Moses gave a seminar for the UC Arts Digital Lab on their research mapping debates on LAWS and the digital tools developed for the project.

Rise of the Robot Quadrupeds — A timeline charting the emergence and use of robot quadrupeds, including Boston Dynamics’ Spot, MIT Biomimetics Lab’s Cheetah, and Ghost Robotics’ Vision 60.

“Saving Lives” with Spot - Robot Quadrupeds and the Lethal Autonomous Weapons Debate — Jeremy Moses and Geoff Ford presented a paper on robotic quadrupeds at the OCIS2020 Conference on December 11, 2020.

Autonomous futures - positioning lethal autonomous weapons in the landscape of future warfare — Amy Fletcher presented at the UC AI Inaugural Conference on December 9, 2020 on her early findings from the Mapping LAWS project.

See Spot “save lives” - COVID-19 as opportunity for acceptance of robotic quadrupeds — Jeremy Moses and Geoff Ford presented their research on robotic quadrupeds at the New Zealand Political Studies Association International Relations Workshop held at Victoria University on November 23, 2020.

“Killer robots” study granted $842,000 to explore controversial emerging warfare — “Robot wars make great movies, but now deadly en mass killing machines are a reality.” Stuff NZ features the Mapping LAWS research project.

Killer robot ethical and legal debate under the microscope — “We’re already seeing divisions among some of the key nation states that are trying to develop this technology.” Associate Professor Amy Fletcher discusses the Mapping LAWS project with RNZ’s Wallace Chapman.

Marsden Fund grant supports UC study on ‘killer robots’ debate — “First there was gunpowder, then nuclear weapons. Now another revolution in warfighting is underway with the rise of algorithmic warfare using robots and precision targeting technology.” UC media release about the Mapping LAWS project.