As AI-accelerated warfare is rapidly viewed as a means of allowing killing at unprecedented speed and scale, the World Council of Churches has signed a statement that calls on tech companies and states to halt the use of AI systems in military kill chains.

These included AI decision-support systems, target generation systems, remote biometric surveillance, and multimodal AI models such as large language models, the WCC.

It released a June 15 statement explaining its decision to sign the statement with some 200 other groups and entities.

In May, Pope Leo XIV had published Magnifica Humanitas, his first encyclical, devoted entirely to artificial intelligence and the safeguarding of the human person in the digital age, LatinoAmerica21 reported.

That decision places AI at the center of the moral and social concerns of our time, reviving a tradition inaugurated by Leo XIII with Rerum Novarum in 1891, when the church addressed the transformations brought about by the Industrial Revolution.

The WCC statement urges that all other AI systems be designed, developed, and deployed in ways that do not cause, contribute to, or are otherwise linked to violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

The statement came ahead of informal exchanges on "Artificial intelligence in the military domain and its implications for international peace and security," organized by the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs on June 15-17.

"Legal scholars and practitioners, technical experts, tech workers, UN special rapporteurs, and investigative journalists have long warned against the development and deployment of AI in warfare, given the heightened risk of international crimes," notes the statement.

"Despite claims by their proponents that AI tools are making warfare more effective, precise, or humane, real-world deployments indicate that AI is actually facilitating more violent, dehumanizing, and destructive methods of warfare."

          - AI SYSTEMS NOT RELIABLE WITH AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS

The statement further notes that AI systems are simply not reliable enough to power fully autonomous weapons.

"Actors who choose to deploy AI systems that are used to commit international crimes must be held criminally responsible," reads the text.

"Our concerns are not limited to the errors that may result from such systems malfunctioning but encompass how these systems fundamentally transform military operations."

Companies have a responsibility to respect human rights, notes the statement.

"As reflected in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, companies engaged in such conduct must immediately cease their contribution to harm," reads the statement.

It says that even when a company is not causing or contributing to harm but is merely linked to it, it is expected to use its leverage to seek to end such violations.

Peter Prove, director of the WCC's Commission of the Churches in International Affairs, said, "The emergence of autonomous weapons systems able to operate without meaningful human control is one of the most challenging of the many moral issues that surround the growing impact of AI in our world and societies.

"That is why the WCC has already for some time been advocating for a pre-emptive ban on so-called 'killer robots'", he noted, "and that is why we are joining this civil society appeal today."