Navigating a Crisis of Conscience, Capital, and the Techno-Industrial Complex: Faith- and Values-Based Responses to Investment in Defense and Surveillance Technologies

As geopolitical turmoil escalates, investors are struggling to assess and address the risks posed by portfolio tech companies’ increasing involvement in military, immigration enforcement, and policing operations.  Alarm bells are sounding - from Silicon Valley to the Vatican - regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to support targeted and mass surveillance, military decision support systems, and autonomous weapons. The race towards “warification” and its domestic security incarnations, creates unprecedented risk for humanitarian law protections for civilians in conflict and to human rights, civil liberties, and privacy and data rights, demanding an urgent response by faith- and values-based investors.  

This session will begin by exploring AI in the military kill chain – how it works and its inherent risks for civilians in conflict. The audience will be led through a hypothetical combat scenario that illustrates each step of the AI-driven targeting process and its lethal outcomes in places like Iran, Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan, Ukraine, and Russia.   

We will then hear from civil society experts on the ways in which military AI and AWS are being deployed in military, immigration enforcement, and policing operations, creating severe and systemic risks for rights holders and shareholders. 

Next, participants will hear from their peers regarding new resources and concrete actions investors can take to address the salient and material risks posed by military AI, autonomous weapons systems, and high-risk surveillance technologies. Specifically, we will discuss a red flag due diligence guide to alert portfolio managers when a potential or current investee may be involved in high-risk military or security operations and help them engage companies.  

Finally, panelists will discuss efforts underway by investors to exclude commercial spyware from their portfolios based on their immitigable human rights, national security, and financial risks.