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Nations Discuss Military AI Use

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FILE: A robotic dog is shown at the Responsible Artificial Intelligence in the Military (REAIM) summit, on responsible use of military artificial intelligence, in The Hague, Netherlands, February 15, 2023.
FILE: A robotic dog is shown at the Responsible Artificial Intelligence in the Military (REAIM) summit, on responsible use of military artificial intelligence, in The Hague, Netherlands, February 15, 2023.

UPDATED TO INCLUDE ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS: The U.S. government on Thursday issued a declaration on the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the military, which would include "human accountability."

"We invite all states to join us in implementing international norms, as it pertains to military development and use of AI" and autonomous weapons, said Bonnie Jenkins, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control.

Jenkins was speaking at he Responsible Artificial Intelligence in the Military (REAIM) summit in The Hague, Netherlands, the first of its kind.

A two-day meet in The Hague involving more than 60 countries took the first steps towards establishing international rules on use of AI on the battlefield, aimed at establishing an agreement similar to those on chemical and nuclear weapons.

"AI offers great opportunities and has extraordinary potential as an enabling technology, enabling us among other benefits to make powerful use of previously unimaginable quantities of data and improving decision-making," the countries said in a joint call to action after the meeting.

But they warned: "There are concerns worldwide around the use of AI in the military domain and about the potential unreliability of AI systems, the issue of human involvement, the lack of clarity with regards to liability and potential unintended consequences."

The roughly 2,000 delegates, from governments, tech firms and civil society, also agreed to launch a global commission to give clarity on its uses of AI in warfare and set down certain guidelines.

Militarily, AI is already used for reconnaissance and surveillance as well as analysis, and could eventually be used for autonomous choosing of targets -- for example by "swarms" of drones sent into enemy territory.

China was invited to the conference as a key player in tech and AI, Dutch officials said, but Russia was not because of its invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago.

"We've clearly established the urgent nature of this subject. We now need to take further steps," Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said at the conference's end.

Although experts say a treaty regulating the use of AI in war may still be a long way off, attendees agreed that guidelines urgently needed to be established.

"In the end it's always the human who needs to make the decision" on the battlefield, General Joerg Vollmer, a former senior NATO commander, told delegates.

"Whatever we're talking about, AI can be helpful, can be supportive, but never let the human out of the responsibility they have to bear -- never, ever hand it over to AI," Vollmer said in a panel discussion.

This report was sourced from Reuters and Agency France-Presse.

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