Nuclear risks and the new AI arms race | Beatrice Fihn & Alice Saltini | EAG London: 2024

EAG Talks

A large-scale nuclear exchange would kill billions and with geopolitical instability the risks are rising to cold war levels. Amidst this, a new arms race to gain a strategic advantage through the integration of advanced deep learning into nuclear systems is underway. Beatrice Fihn and Alice Saltini explore the heightened risks of nuclear war, the risks of AI integration in nuclear command, control and communications (NC3) and how we can prevent calamity. Beatrice Fihn is an expert on international law and civil society mobilisation, focused on developing innovative ways to strengthen global governance in the age of rapidly emerging technologies, geopolitical tension and climate change. She is the former Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning campaign coalition that works to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons. Ms. Fihn accepted the Nobel Peace Prize and delivered the Nobel Lecture in Oslo on behalf of the campaign. As one of the worlds foremost experts on civil society mobilisation, international law, and diplomacy and multilateralism, Ms. Fihn has worked over a decade to convince governments, parliamentarians, international organisations to come together and work collectively for global governance solutions. She has spoken at the United Nations, the European Parliament, the World Economic Forum, the Munich Security Conference and SXSW, as well as lectured at numerous universities, including Harvard, Penn, Oxford and Cambridge. Alice Saltini is a Policy Fellow for the European Leadership Network, focusing most of her work at the intersection of AI and nuclear risks. With a keen interest in AI regulation at the intersection with nuclear systems, Alice is dedicated to developing innovative policy solutions in this field. Alice seeks to understand and address challenges presented by the potential implications of advanced AI models for nuclear command and control systems. Her insights have found a platform in a number of multilateral fora. Prior to joining the ELN, Alice completed stints at the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization in the External Relations, Protocol and International Cooperation Section, and worked as a Research Assistant at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. She holds a Master's degree in Russian studies and a Post Graduate Certificate (Pg Cert) in Nonproliferation Studies from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.