September 23, 2025

17h00-18h00 (WEST)

Michael Teutsch, AI Strategist & Lead at HENSOLDT

Ethics in Action: Challenges and Responsibilities of Military AI in Surveillance and Reconnaissance 

Abstract: This talk explores the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in military applications, emphasizing the importance of adhering to ethical guidelines. Existing literature on ethical frameworks is reviewed for responsible AI use, particularly in military contexts, and a consolidated set of ethical principles for AI integration is proposed. Then, three specific military use cases are taken as examples demonstrating the feasibility of AI-powered assistance functions, while mapping these scenarios to ethical considerations such as human-in-the-loop principles. The conclusion highlights the necessity of careful design and the implementation of eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) techniques to ensure that human users remain the ultimate decision-makers in military operations.

Short bio: Michael Teutsch is AI Strategist & Lead at HENSOLDT in Ulm, Germany. He received his diploma degree and his Ph.D. in computer science from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in 2009 and 2014, respectively. From 2009–2016 he worked as a research scientist and a postdoc at the Fraunhofer IOSB, Karlsruhe, Germany. Since 2016, he has been with HENSOLDT - a global leader in sensor solutions for defense and security applications across all domains. As AI Lead, he oversees the company's AI strategy and the implementation of AI functions in HENSOLDT's product portfolio. Furthermore, Michael has been organizing and co-chairing the annual IEEE International Workshop on Perception Beyond the Visible Spectrum (PBVS) since 2018. He was active as lecturer for computer vision and machine learning at various German universities. Michael has authored or co-authored about 50 scientific publications. He is a senior member of the IEEE.