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    Annex

    Examples of AI Uses in Contexts of Monitoring and Verification

    AI has already been used occasionally in monitoring missions or is considered for future verification:

    • The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) “[used] machine learning to analyze radio data to detect hate speech, serving as an automated early-warning system for unrest” and social media was monitored with AI in the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) “to identify perceptions of the Mission to improve service”.1
    • The IAEA has expressed interest in AI applications in nuclear safeguards implementations and conducts research in this field, e.g. to support inspectors and analysts in reviewing surveillance.2 The successful application of AI techniques to identify changes at nuclear facilities with satellite imagery was demonstrated as part of a project that also developed a Big Data pipeline for automatic data processing in the context of IAEA safeguards.3
    • In order to find “approaches for using AI to enhance the effectiveness of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), efficiency, and preparedness”, the OPCW has sought research proposals.4
    • Various types of cameras, acoustic and other sensors as well as drone footage were used in combination by the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine, motion sensors by United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) or radars by MINUSMA.5 At least for the SMM, allocating sufficient personal resources needed for analyzing the data was difficult.6 Artificial Intelligence may help solve this issue.
    • Besides international organizations, AI is also applied in the civil society open-source intelligence (OSINT) community. For instance, Forensic Architecture used ML classifiers to search for Russian tanks in social media footage of the 2014 Battle of Ilovaisk and provide proof of the direct military involvement of Russia in Ukraine.7 A Swansea University-led initiative uses AI to search for instances of BLU-63 (a cluster ammunition) in footage from the civil war in Yemen,8 while the investigative journalism platform Bellingcat has developed an AI image classification tool for their collaborators.9
    1. United Nations. (2021, August 18). Secretary-General Outlines Elements of Digital Transformation Strategy for Peacekeeping, at High-Level Security Council Debate [Press release]. https://press.un.org/en/2021/sgsm20856.doc.htm (April 8, 2025). ↩
    2. Brown, D. (2022). Artificial Intelligence for Accelerating Nuclear Applications, Science, and Technology. IAEA. https://doi.org/10.2172/1913826; IAEA. (2023). IAEA Annual Report 2023. https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/gc/gc68-2.pdf ↩
    3. Laumen, L. (2025). Data Science in Nuclear Verification - Extracting Verification-Relevant Information from Earth Observation Big Data [Doctoral dissertation, RWTH Aachen University]. RWTH Aachen. https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/record/998125 ↩
    4. OPCW. (n.d.). The OPCW Artificial Intelligence Research Challenge. Retrieved June 5, 2025, from https://www.opcw.org/media-centre/featured-topics/aichallenge ↩
    5. Grand-Clément, S. (2022). Exploring the Use of Technology for Remote Ceasefire Monitoring and Verification. UNIDIR. https://doi.org/10.37559/CAAP/22/ERC/06 ↩
    6. Hug, A. (2024). Ceasefire Monitoring and Verification and the Use of Technology: Insights from Ukraine 2014-2022. ETH Zurich. https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000683528 ↩
    7. Forensic Architecture. (2019). The Battle Of Ilovaisk. https://forensic-architecture.org//investigation/the-battle-of-ilovaisk ↩
    8. Karen H. (2020). Human Rights Activists Want to Use AI to Help Prove War Crimes in Court. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/06/25/1004466/ai-could-help-human-rights-activists-prove-war-crimes/ ↩
    9. Belisario, A. (2024, April 16). Easy AI: Classifying Images with AI Models. Bellingcat. https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/how-tos/2024/08/15/easy-ai-zero-shot-ai-image-classification-smart-image-sorter/ ↩