Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are enabling military systems to operate in environments where uncertainty, adversarial dynamics, and time-critical decision-making are the norm rather than the exception. In such contexts, ethical design cannot rely solely on predictable scenarios, assumptions of human oversight, or static rule-based constraints; rather, it requires careful and substantial ethical programming and design to ensure that AI-enabled systems behave in alignment with moral and legal principles throughout their operational lifecycle.

This conference explores how ethically aligned military AI can be conceived, designed, and developed for deployment in uncertain, adversarial, and time-critical environments. Across two days, contributors examine normative and methodological foundations related to the embedding of moral and ethical constraints during the early stages of the lifecycle of military AI systems.

08.30 – 09.00 Walk in and Registration
09.15 – 09.30 Welcoming Remarks

09.30 – 10.15 From Principles to Practice: An Actionable Value-Based Risk Governance Dashboard for Defense AI by Jasper van der Waa, Lotte Kerkkamp-de Rijcke and Birgit van der Stigchel (Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research-TNO)
10.15 – 11.00 Ethical Hazard Assessment: A Functional Approach to Assess Machine Learning Risks in Airborne Weapon Systems by Hauke Budig (Hamburg University of Technology), Volker Gollnick (Hamburg University of Technology), Nathan Gabriel Wood (Hamburg University of Technology / California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo /Center for Environmental and Technology Ethics – Prague) and Scott Robbins (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)

11.00 – 11.30 Break

11.30 – 12.15 Meeting the Moral Responsibilities Associated with Dual-Use AI Through Three Practical Solutions by Daniel Trusilo (University of St. Gallen) and David Danks (University of Virginia)
12.15 – 13.00 The Disinformation Bomb: Generative AI, Deepfake Detection, and the Industrialization of Deception by Mark Evenblij (DuckDuckGoose)

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch Break

14.00 – 14.45 Designing Responsible AI for Cognitive Warfare by Jurriaan van Diggelen, Aletta Eikelboom, Neill Bo Finlayson, Jose Kerstholt, Kimberley Kruijver (Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research-TNO)
14.45 – 15.30 Rights-Preserving Framework to Bot Detection in AI-Enabled Cognitive Warfare by Henning Lahmann (Leiden University) and Perica Jovchevski (Delft University of Technology)

15.30 – 16.00 Break

16.00 – 17.30 Keynote Lecture: Military AI, Transdisciplinarity and the Politics of Design by Filippo Santoni de Sio (Eindhoven University of Technology)

09.00 – 09.30 Walk in

09.30 – 10.15 AI-Enabled Decision-Support Systems and the In Bello Trilemma: Recalibrating Feasible Precaution in Armed Conflict by Ann-Katrien Oimann (Tilburg University)
10.15 – 11.00 Automated Adversariality: LLMs, Objectivity, and Autonomy in Intelligence Analysis by Nicholas Johnston (Delft University of Technology/ Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research-TNO) and Martin Sand (Delft University of Technology)

11.00 – 11.30 Break

11.30 – 12.15 Sabotage and Espionage in Grey Zone Warfare: Responsible Data Integrated Threat Assessment of Shadow Fleet Activities by Liselotte Polderman-Borst (Leiden University / Delft University of Technology / Netherlands Defense Academy) and Stefan Buijsman (Delft University of Technology)
12.15 – 13.00 Encoded Values: Tradeoffs in Programing Language and Development Methods for Military Software by Joshua S. Greenberg and Varija Mehta (Cornell University)

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch Break

14.00 – 14.45 Meaningful Human Control in C-UAS and Swarming Strike by Lennart Bult and Flip van Wijk (Emergent Swarm Solutions B.V.)
14.45 – 15.30 Authority, Accountability and AI: The Case for Indexed Alignment by Bryce Goodman (University of Oxford)

15.30 – 16.00 Break

16.00 – 17.30 Keynote Lecture: Empirical Perspectives on the Ethical Use and Development of Military AI by Christine Boshuijzen-van Burken (Netherlands Defense Academy / Eindhoven University of Technology)

• Perica Jovchevski, Post-doctoral Researcher in the section of Ethics and Philosophy of Technology at TU Delft.
• Stefan Buijsman, Associate Professor Responsible AI at TU Delft.