Presentation at the Permanent Swiss Mission to the UN
The ETH Center for Security Studies presented research findings to UN member state delegates and UN staff.
In October 2023, researchers from the Center for Security Studies (CSS) presented the Conflict Event Prediction for UN Peacekeeping project to a diverse group of UN member state delegates and UN staff at an event hosted by the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations. Concretely, the CSS researchers presented the findings from a pilot project that explored the feasibility of short-term conflict-event predictions for UN peace operations with a particular emphasis on the use of ‘deep learning.’ The presentation sparked a lively discussion on the integration of AI-driven applications in decision-making processes, highlighting both the opportunities and risks involved.
Key Takeaways
- Delegates of troop-contributing countries stressed the centrality of human insight for situational awareness in UN peace operations – and the corresponding need for human-centred technologies.
- UN staff noted that the digital transformation of the UN General Secretariat benefits from the sustained exchange of views that collaborative projects with academic partners make possible.
- Overall, participation in the event illustrated the great interest of UN member states in discussing promises and pitfalls of machine learning and AI.
