CNTR Tech Trend Lab 2025

On May 26, the third CNTR Tech Trend Lab took place at PRIF in Frankfurt. In three panels, scholars and practitioners discussed current developments in the natural and technical sciences and resulting challenges and opportunities for arms control.

The first panel, Chemical and Biological Weapons Control, featured Dr. Carmen García López and Dr. Kadri Reis, members of CNTR’s research group “Chemical and Biological Weapons Control”, who discussed AI in chemistry and biology with Dr. Marc-Michael Blum, Independent Consultant, and Dr. Maximilian Brackmann, Spiez Laboratory. Chaired by Dr. Una Jakob, Co-Head of the same research group, participants discussed advancements and potential safeguards related to AI tools as well as risks of these new technologies.

The second panel, Emerging Disruptive Technologies, opened with presentations by Dr. Thomas Reinhold, Dr. Niklas Schörnig, Liska Suckau, and Abdullah Korkusuz, members of the CNTR research Group “Emerging Disruptive Technologies” and was chaired by Dr. Jürgen Altmann, researcher at the Technical University Dortmund. Among other things, the panel discussed with Dr. Jens Hälterlein, University Paderborn, and Dr. Benjamin Schaller, German Ministry of Defence, how AI and semiconductors are used in the military realm, their risks and opportunities as well as EDTs in National Science and Technology Strategies.

The third panel, Science for Nuclear Diplomacy, brought together Fabian Unruh and Dr. Yan-Jie Schnellbach, members of CNTR's research group “Science for Nuclear Diplomacy”, Daniel Nießen from the Bundeswehr Verification Center and Dr. Matthias Englert from Oeko-Institute. Current challenges in the field of Verification were discussed, such as the essential role of human oversight in final decision-making processes, questioning whether this is solely a software issue. They explored the concept of explainability, debating whether it is truly problematic that not all aspects are perfectly explainable. The necessity and feasibility of full transparency of data were also examined, along with how transparency of data, models, and algorithms can serve as trust-building measures. The conversation included the implications of unclear verification objectives, such as the difficulty of codifying the Chemical Weapons Convention's general purpose criterion into an AI objective. Additionally, the discussion covered the stages at which AI is integrated into the verification process and the various roles AI models might fulfill, along with the implications of such integration.. The panel was moderated by CNTR researcher Dr. Luis Pazos Clemens.

The CNTR Tech Trend Labs are held annually at the locations of the Research and Transfer Cluster starting in 2023 and, in addition to exchange and networking, also serve in preparation of the CNTR Monitor.

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