Artificial Intelligence on computers have become so common that many products and services have to use it to properly work like intended.
But there are dangers. This is why the technology should be met with regulations, and that it should be used responsibly.
Because the use of the technology for the military has become a concern in the past, the United States launched an initiative to promote international cooperation on the responsible use of AI and autonomous weapons by the militaries, seeking to impose order on an emerging technology that has the potential to change the way war is waged.
"As a rapidly changing technology, we have an obligation to create strong norms of responsible behavior concerning military uses of AI and in a way that keeps in mind that applications of AI by militaries will undoubtedly change in the coming years," said Bonnie Jenkins, the State Department’s under secretary for arms control and international security.
She added that the U.S. political declaration, which contains non-legally binding guidelines outlining best practices for responsible military use of AI, "can be a focal point for international cooperation."
The declaration was made during the opening of the Summit on Responsible AI in the Military Domain, or REAIM, 2023 in The Hague, the Netherlands, co-hosted by the Republic of Korea.
In the summit, where more than 80 countries met, Jenkins stressed the topic due the advancements of drone technology amid the Russia’s war in Ukraine have accelerated a trend that could soon bring the world’s first fully autonomous fighting robots to the battlefield.
Then, at the conclusion of the two-day conference, the United States, the Netherlands, China and about 50 other nations signed off on a 25-point call to action, where they agree the safe and responsible use of a variety of machine intelligence applications.
The pledge calls for countries "to ensure that humans remain responsible and accountable for decisions when using AI in the military domain," as well as sharing best practices and developing national frameworks, and "to develop national frameworks, strategies and principles on responsible AI in the military domain.”
"This cutting-edge technology presents new challenges that demand our attention," said Park Jin, the South Korean minister of foreign affairs.
China’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Tan Jian, said Beijing has sent two papers to the United Nations on regulating military AI applications, saying the issue “concerns the common security and the well-being of mankind, which requires the united response of all countries,” he said.
Twenty other nations that attended the summit hadn't signed the pact as of Thursday, for reasons that weren't immediately clear.
"The Hague is the historical city of peace and justice,” Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said during a pre-conference briefing.
"We are in time to mitigate risks and to prevent AI from spiraling out of control, and we are in time to prevent AI from taking us to a place we simply don’t want to be."
The call to action issued in the Netherlands underscored "the importance of ensuring appropriate safeguards and human oversight of the use of AI systems, bearing in mind human limitations due to constraints in time and capacities."
"This is an idea for which the time has come," the minister said. "We're taking the first step in articulating and working toward what responsible use of AI in the military will be."
This summit follows a 2021 letter from the Dutch parliament asking its ministries to look into the need for a legal framework for regulating AI technologies.
And here, the REAIM Code of Conduct calls for "human oversight of the use of AI systems, bearing in mind human limitations due to constraints in time and capacities."
The U.S., with its own framework, said that it wants other nations to agree to it, calling for military AI to be accountable, including ensuring there is a human in command of using these technologies.
"This is the spirit of the summit coming to life,” said Bonnie Jenkins, the U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, during the closing of the conference.
But just like before, this time, not everyone feels that a treaty banning or restricting the use of military AI is required.
For example, some have questioned where the accountability will lie if a computer program commits a war crime.
It's worth noting that while the call is for the benefit of everyone, this non-binding pledge falls short of the restrictions imposed by other weapons treaties.
It's also worth noting that the organizers didn't invite the Russian Federation because of the conflict in Ukraine, which has been one of the major topics of discussion at the summit
