The Killchain Tribunal

A browser-based interactive game exploring accountability and justice in AI warfare technologies

The Killchain Tribunal is a browser-based interactive narrative where audiences play the part of a juror in a near-future tribunal where war crimes committed using AI warfare systems are being investigated.

The ‘juror’ reviews three different cases where disasters, mistakes, and malfunctions involved these Ai ‘killchain’ technologies. Their task is to reject the narrative that a ‘superintelligence’ or ‘rogue AI’ was responsible, and in each case ask who truly is responsible here: is it the operator of the system who steers the software, the soldier on the ground who pulls the trigger, or the designers of the software who design these platforms to enable these acts?

The evidence they review for these cases is screen-captured footage of these AI warfare systems in action, showing what was seen and done with them. This footage has been created through a dense research-led process of uncovering the function, design logics, and aesthetics of three major modern AI warfare systems: Palantir’s Maven Smart System, the Anduril Lattice system, and the British army’s Project ASGARD battlefield system. This research has been pieced together to create realistic, fully-functional interfaces that offer us insights into how these technologies are used in battlefields today, and the distant gaze they offer their users.

Throughout the game, other NPC jurors are reviewing the footage alongside you, offering you their own opinions about who is responsible, letting you either debate with them to refine your own position, or have their opinions reinforce your own. Through this, audiences build first-hand knowledge of the design of these systems, the kinds of tragedies they can enable, but also the language to articulate who we should truly hold responsible for these crimes.

The Killchain Tribunal is free to play here, on desktop browsers: killchain.wesleygoatley.com