Review of a Workshop on DRONE IMAGES / Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden June 2020

Military drones collect a huge ammount of sensory data and interpret it with the help of AI. Thus they become increasingly independent from human influence in generating images of reality. On June 4, 2020, the Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden held its first workshop focusing on military drone images, regarding this topic from the perspective of humanities and social science.

Michael Richardson (UNSW Sidney) emphasized in his keynote speech the problems of opacity and its embedding in discriminatory and racist structures. Not only are the reasons for machine decisions more difficult to comprehend, but also specific stereotypical patterns are further entrenched.

Philipp Preußger (Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden) focused in his lecture on the intrinsic problems of AI and justice. The dignity of the victim can only be preserved if responsibilities are clarified. In order to ensure this, the human-machine interaction must be considered.

The workshop was concluded with an interdisciplinary discussion of the problem of opacity in AI.