Blog - Dr Zena Assaad

I read Mark Zuckerberg's latest essay so you don't have to.

I recently attended the UN informal exchanges on AI in the military domain in Geneva.

In this article I co-wrote with Jessica Dorsey, Ingvild Bode and Elke Schwarz, we unpack the duality of the lifecycle concept for military AI systems, comparing the engineering systems lifecycle with a socio-technical understanding of the lifecycle.

In this essay I wrote for the Arab Reform Initiative, I examine how AI decision support systems have interacted with existing military doctrines, operational practices, and international humanitarian law to produce a civilian death toll that has outpaced…

Last week I started to see social media posts and news articles on missing names of villages and towns in Southern Lebanon in Apple Maps.

A few days ago my good friend Tom Chan shared an article from the Guardian with me (I have linked the article at the end of this post) which goes into the deeper systemic problems of military targeting that contribute to false positives and consequentially

An article I wrote with Netta Goussac for the Conversation on the Australian Defence AI policy outlining what it includes, what is misses and how it compares to the military AI policies of other countries.

An article I wrote for Just Security on my reflections on the third REAIM summit.

A blog post I wrote for OpinioJuris on the ongoing Anthropic - U.S.

A blog post I wrote for OpinioJuris on the Anthropic - U.S.

An article I wrote for the conversation on the U.S Department of War’s AI Strategy being a case of “AI Peacocking”.

Image credit: https://unsplash.com/illustrations/a-laptop-computer-sitting-on-top-of-a-desk-next-to-a-cup-of-coffee-Qqn9VFkdV6E Here is a list of my articles published in 2025.

An article I wrote for the Conversation on the use of AI in weapon systems and the fallacy of the AI accountability gap.

An article I wrote for Just Security comparing the U.S. and China’s AI action plans.

An article I wrote for the Conversation on the implications of big tech’s transition towards vertical integration.

An article I wrote for the Conversation about recent claims ChatGPT had passed the Turing test.

An article I wrote for the conversation on Google’s recent decision to drop their promise not to use AI for weapons.

It’s been less than a week since Trump’s inauguration and a lot has happened.

Image credit: https://unsplash.com/@cathrynlavery It’s been a busy year, so here is a round up of the non-academic writing and podcasts I did in 2024: Writing “Who’s afraid of “killer robots”?

An article I wrote for the Conversation on Meta’s recent announcement around making their generative artificial intelligence (AI) models available to defence and national security organisations.