GC REAIM Commissioner
Thompson is a Professor of International Law and Artificial Intelligence Technologies at Liverpool John Moores University. He was recently appointed by the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General to serve on his 15-member Advisory Body on Disarmament Matters. Thompson was part of the experts that researched and drafted the first UN Human Rights Council Report on AWS (A/HRC/23/47) which formed the basis of the current UN discussions on AWS. He has been consulted by the UN Human Rights Council in its current study on the human rights implications of AI in the military domain (A/HRC/51/L.25).
For the past decade, Thompson has engaged the UN Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons in the framework of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, where he has given several presentations. Over the past 15 years, Thompson has been deeply involved in influencing the discourse surrounding governance of AI in the military domain, by advising numerous states and inter-governmental institutions on governance of AI in the military domain. He has organised several high-level workshops for African diplomats in Geneva, Switzerland and in South Africa on the issue of AWS. Thompson has given evidence on AI in the military domain to parliamentary committees of several states, including those of the United Kingdom and his contributions cited in the UK House of Lords Report on AWS. He is the Principal Investigator in the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights’ study on human rights implications of AI (ACHPR/Res.473) – a resolution which also addresses AI in the military domain. Thompson also serves as a legal expert for the International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC) and is the Africa Region Lead and Spokesperson for the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. He also served as a legal expert member of the International Panel on the Regulation of Autonomous Weapons (IPRAW). Previously, Thompson served as a consultant on the Alan Turing Institute project on Advancing Data Justice. Thompson’s PhD thesis (University of Pretoria) is on international law and AWS. His LLM thesis (Harvard Law School) is on international law and human control of AI in the military domain. His other LLM (University of Pretoria) is on drone-targeted killings and international law. Thompson read for a Masters in AI Ethics and Society at the University of Cambridge.
