François Bausch, Luxembourg's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence; Credit: MAEE

On Monday 11 September 2023, Luxembourg's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, François Bausch, presented the results of the interministerial working group on lethal autonomous weapon systems.

This interministerial working group, set up by the Government Council (Cabinet) on 22 July 2022, was tasked with drawing up a proposal relating to Luxembourg's position with regard to lethal autonomous weapon systems as well as follow-up actions aimed at defining principles, rules and control mechanisms at the national level pending regulations at the international level.

"Autonomous weapon systems are an increasingly important topic. New technologies, in particular artificial intelligence, bring potential and opportunities for the development of our modern societies," said Minister Bausch. "However, in combination with weapon systems and in the absence of rules regarding their use, they can become a major threat to our society. The ambition of the Luxembourg government is not to stop innovation, but to support it and oversee its development."

In the absence of an agreement on an international definition and after analysing existing definitions within other countries and institutions, the working group proposed - and the Cabinet approved - the following definition for the term "autonomous weapons system": "Weapon systems capable of identifying, selecting and deploying force against a target without human intervention." Luxembourg's Directorate of Defence noted that it was decided to drop the qualifier "lethal" from the definition, given that these weapons systems can be used for both lethal and non-lethal purposes and that this qualifier is no longer used in discussions at the international level.

At the international level, Luxembourg is set to promote a position based on the two-tier approach which differentiates between completely autonomous weapon systems and those operating in a partially autonomous manner. Concretely, this approach aims to:

  • prohibit the use and development of (lethal) autonomous weapon systems which cannot be deployed in compliance with existing international law, particularly international humanitarian law;
  • regulate any other autonomous system in order to guarantee compliance with international law and international humanitarian law.

In this context, two key principles will be taken into consideration: appropriate human control and human responsibility.

In parallel to the position defended at the international level, the Luxembourg government has also decided to take measures at the national level. This national action plan includes eight recommendations and eleven corresponding follow-up actions.

The recommendations were as follows:

1. Promote Luxembourg's position

2. Participate in and contribute to international discussions

3. Reaffirm the eleven guiding principles approved at UN level

4. Control of dual-use technologies developed in Luxembourg and their potential application in autonomous weapons systems

5. Evaluate autonomous weapon systems against internationally recognised best practices and standards

6. Continue to study the technological challenges of autonomous weapon systems

7. Introduce guidelines at national level

8. Set up a permanent ethics committee

Between October 2022 and July 2023, the interministerial working group exchanged with a total of 30 national and international experts. It was represented at the Responsible AI in the Military Domain Summit, hosted by the Government of the Netherlands, as well as at the sessions of the open-ended group of governmental experts to study issues related to emerging technologies in the field of lethal autonomous weapons systems at the UN level. The working group also organised an international conference on autonomous weapon systems in Luxembourg and conducted a public poll.

The working group is made up of representatives from the following ministries and administrations in Luxembourg: Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (Directorate of Defence; Directorate of Political Affairs); Ministry for Digitalisation; Ministry of the Economy; Ministry of Higher Education and Research; Ministry of Justice; Luxembourg Army; Ministry of State (Department of Media, Connectivity and Digital Policy).