Integrators at War: Mediating in AI-assisted Resort-to-Force Decisions

Abstract

The integration of AI systems into the military domain is changing the way war-related decisions are made. It binds together three disparate groups of actors - developers, integrators, users - and creates a relationship between these groups and the machine, embedded in the (pre-)existing organisational and system structures. In this article, we focus on the important, but often neglected, group of integrators within such a sociotechnical system. In complex human-machine configurations, integrators carry responsibility for linking the disparate groups of developers and users in the political and military system. To act as the mediating group requires a deep understanding of the other groups' activities, perspectives and norms. We thus ask which challenges and shortcomings emerge from integrating AI systems into resort-to-force (RTF) decision-making processes, and how to address them. To answer this, we proceed in three steps. First, we conceptualise the relationship between different groups of actors and AI systems as a sociotechnical system. Second, we identify challenges within such systems for human-machine teaming in RTF decisions. We focus on challenges that arise a) from the technology itself, b) from the integrators' role in the sociotechnical system, c) from the human-machine interaction. Third, we provide policy recommendations to address these shortcomings when integrating AI systems into RTF decision-making structures.