TRAILBLAZER
LARRY
LEWIS
Utilising data and AI to prevent civilian casualties in warfare
With a PhD in Physical Chemistry , Larry Lewis shifted from analysing data in a laboratory to drawing upon data from real-world military operations . “ The world is now my laboratory ,” explains Lewis .
Throughout his career , Lewis has dedicated himself to combatting the ever-present issue of civilian casualties in warfare .
His keen interest in the power of data has drawn Lewis to look into events in Iraq , Afghanistan and many other battlefields to see if he could support militaries as they receive more pressure to reduce the number of civilian casualties .
He continued : “ I was drawn to going to the battlefield , for context , but also getting the data to challenge common assumptions , the way people think about civilian casualties . The question I always ask is , “ what does the data say ?””
These false assumptions meant that the military repeatedly said
Vice President and Director of the Center for Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence , CNA it didn ’ t need help with the issue , even when rising levels of civilian casualties in multiple conflicts seemed to say differently .
Despite repeated resistance , Lewis ’ sheer determination meant he kept looking for opportunities to analyse data to better understand how civilian casualties happen and develop practical ways of reducing them .
One such opportunity was the Joint Civilian Casualty Study , supporting US and international forces in Afghanistan in the face of increasing civilians . He worked with Dr Sarah Sewall on this groundbreaking study .
“ The study combined this data and the research foundation I had built . But we also travelled to Afghanistan . “ General Petraeus sponsored the work and even flew me around Afghanistan in his jet . We met with forces all around the country to understand the challenges and the context . Data is invaluable , but you have to understand the context as well . General Petraeus called it the first comprehensive assessment on civilian harm and it was ,” added Lewis .
Discussing his work in Afghanistan , Lewis said : “ I gathered all the data on civilian harm incidents and analysed them , and I started seeing patterns . This gave us a clearer picture of how civilian harm happens , and it was fundamentally different from what the military thought ; they had this misunderstanding about how civilian harm happened . They would put measures in place to fix it but they wouldn ’ t work as they didn ' t understand how it happened in the first place .”
18 December 2021