With Unil, the next-door campus releasing a report reviewing the ethics of external collaborations under the light of national and international law and human rights, EPFL shows once again the incompetence of its GEP (Global Ethics and Partnerships Committee) after the release of their “ChatGPT report” on July 2024, the irresponsible ethical analysis methods and the lack of transparency regarding problematic ongoing collaborations. Since then, the GEP and ILOT has cut the means of discussion with us, their students, preventing any form of constructive feedback and continuous improvements of methods. 

In the context of a genocide lasting for a year and a half, the repetitive infraction of International Law and rising conflicts in several parts of the world, we demand that our institution equip itself with a competent external ethical committee that prevents our knowledge and research from arming conflicts and fuelling infractions of International Law and Human rights, concealed by supposed applications “dual-use” or “development of surveillance technologies that may restrict human rights and civil liberties”. EPFL’s external collaborations essentially specify in these domains, both of which the ERC (European Research Council) identify as sensitive research sectors that demand an acute ethical risk assessment and analysis [1]. This is even reinforced when these collaborations involves for example TECHNION, a university that openly takes it upon their shoulders to develop the necessary AI technologies [2] and weapons [3] used during the Gaza genocide [4]. In this context, EPFL renew collaborations with TECHNION under the EuroTeq partnerships [5] and other research-related AI collaborations [6][7]

We thus invite the new EPFL direction to take example of the neighbouring university, and other European institutions to form and mandate a competent ethical committee including experts of International law and Human rights, in order to review its ongoing collaborations and research projects, sparing its students and researchers from any potential infractions of international law. 

[1] European Commission. (2021, 14 septembre). Guidance note - Potential misuse of research (V2.0).

https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/20212027/horizon/guidance/guidance-note-potential-misuse-of-research-results_he_en.pdf

[2] https://technionuk.org/news-post/ai-tool-predicts-rocket-fire-on-israel-finds-best-time-to-shower/ 

[3] https://web.archive.org/web/20031205022309/http:/pard.technion.ac.il/archives/presseng/Html/PR_d-9Eng_20_10.Html 

[4] Haaretz. (2024, March 3rd) . https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-03-03/ty-article-magazine/.premium/gaza-becomes-israels-testing-ground-for-remote-control-military-robots/0000018e-03ed-def2-a98e-cfff1e640000 

[5] https://euroteq.eurotech-universities.eu/about-us/partner-universities/

[6]https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICDT.2024.14

[7]https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-59835-7_17