The implicated scientist: on the role of AI researchers in the development of weapons systems

2026-04-20

AI Summary

This study addresses the ethical entanglement of AI researchers in the development of AI-enabled weapons, which exacerbate mass casualties, global inequality, and structural violence. It is the first to systematically position AI researchers as subjects of ethical responsibility and proposes a critical ethical framework that shifts from complicity toward “distanced, differentiated solidarity.” Integrating perspectives from technology ethics, critical theory, and social justice, the work employs case studies and philosophical analysis to expose the structural injustices embedded in the AI arms race. By doing so, it offers researchers a theoretical pathway to reflect on their societal responsibilities and enact ethically grounded interventions in their professional practice.

Technology Category

• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Bias, Fairness & Equity
• Machine Learning: Ethics, Bias, and Fairness
• Natural Language Processing: Ethics — Bias, Fairness, Transparency & Privacy

Application Category

• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Fairness and ethical considerations in crowd work and in human-in-the-loop AI systems
• Responsible Web: Fairness, accountability, transparency and ethics of web technologies
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics for personalization

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are increasingly used in modern weapons systems. Notably, these systems have recently been involved in mass killings and destruction at scale. Furthermore, there is currently a strong interest and competition among powerful players to accelerate the proliferation of weapons with automated or AI-based components, a phenomenon known as AI arms race. This competition poses a risk of causing even more deaths and devastation in the future, as well as increased power and wealth inequality. In this work, we aim to shed light on the role of AI researchers as implicated subjects in the harms caused by weapons enabled by AI technologies. We investigate and discuss the specifics of this implication and explore ways to transfigure this position of implication into one of differentiated, long-distance solidarity with the victims of technologically fortified injustices.

Problem

• AI weapons
• AI arms race
• researcher responsibility
• technologically fortified injustices
• implicated subjects

Innovation

• AI ethics
• researcher responsibility
• AI arms race
• technologically fortified injustice
• solidarity