[CRASH-CONFERENCE] Gaza, Ukraine. How AI and drones are transforming the violence of war

On Tuesday, October 14, 2025, the CRASH team was pleased to welcome Laure de Roucy-Rochegonde and Amélie Ferey for a conference on the transformation of war violence in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) and drones. The discussion was prepared and moderated by Fabrice Weissman.

While AI and drones have long been presented by the military as a means of limiting human casualties and collateral damage, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine reveal a much more ambiguous and disturbing reality: swarms of drones attacking civilian and military infrastructure in Russia and Ukraine, autonomous weapons identifying and firing on targets without human intervention, surveillance systems assigning a “risk score” to each Palestinian, targeting software enabling their location and assassination at an unprecedented rate, etc. By marginalizing the role of humans in the use of force, these technologies are significantly accelerating the pace of military operations and destruction.

What impact do these changes have on the violence of war suffered by populations and those who come to their aid? What questions does the use of these new lethal technologies raise about the ethical and legal limits governing the use of armed force?

To discuss these fascinating yet chilling topics, we welcomed two specialists, researchers at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI): Laure de Roucy-Rochegonde and Amélie Ferey. Laure de Roucy-Rochegonde is the Director of IFRI's Geopolitical Technology Center. Amélie Ferey is a researcher at IFRI's Center for Security Studies and head of the Defense Research Laboratory.

Content :
00:00 Présentation
00:44 Introduction
04:03 In Gaza, a shift to large-scale targeted killings enabled by AI
19:21 The principle of proportionality: how many collateral victims are acceptable?
26:18 In Ukraine, the empowerment of drones in the targeting process
39:04 Palantir, Amazon, Microsoft, etc.: the actors involved in training military AI
44:43 MSF’s experience with new war technologies
54:27 Difficulties in imposing regulations on autonomous weapons
01:06:08 Questions 1, 2 and 3
01:24:07 Question 4
01:30:42 Question 5
01:36:45 Questions 6 and 7

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