‘Blueprint’ for employing AI in the military

will be the focus of the South Korea meeting.

 

90 countries, including representatives from the US and China, attended the summit, which focused on multi-stakeholder discussions and aimed to establish basic guidelines for the use of AI.

An international summit was called by South Korea on Monday in an attempt to create guidelines for the military’s responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI), however any agreement reached is unlikely to have legal authority behind it.

This two-day summit in Seoul is the second of its kind, with government delegates from over 90 countries, including China and the United States.

The United States, China, and other countries supported a modest “call to action, opens new tab” at the first summit, which took place in Amsterdam last year, but there was no legal commitment.

“In the recent Russia-Ukraine war, an AI-applied Ukrainian drone served as David’s slingshot,” Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun of South Korea stated in the opening remarks.

He was alluding to Ukraine’s attempts to acquire a technological advantage over Russia by introducing AI-enabled drones, with the hope that they would assist in defeating signal jamming and allow unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to operate in larger formations.

“The military’s operational capabilities are significantly enhanced as AI is used in the field. But because misuse can have negative effects, it’s like having two sides to a blade,” Kim remarked.

Discussions will address topics like a legal assessment to guarantee adherence to international law and safeguards to stop autonomous weapons from making life-or-death decisions without the proper human oversight, according to South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul.

According to a senior South Korean official, the Seoul summit aimed to agree on a blueprint for action that would establish a minimum level of safeguards for AI in the military and suggest principles on responsible use by reflecting principles laid out by NATO, the U.S., or a number of other countries.

The paper, which aims to be a more thorough attempt to put restrictions on AI usage in the military but still probably lacks legal obligations, is expected to be endorsed by a limited number of the summit’s participating states on Tuesday.

The summit is not the only international set of discussions on AI use in the military.

U.N. countries that belong to the 1983 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) are discussing potential restrictions on lethal autonomous weapons systems for compliance with international humanitarian law.

The U.S. government last year also launched a declaration on responsible use of AI in the military, which covers broader military application of AI, beyond weapons. As of August, 55 countries have endorsed the declaration.

The Seoul summit, co-hosted by the Netherlands, Singapore, Kenya and the United Kingdom, aims to ensure ongoing multi-stakeholder discussions in a field where technological developments are primarily driven by the private sector, but governments are the main decision makers.

Approximately 2,000 individuals from around the world have registered for the summit, including officials from academia, international organizations, and the commercial sector. They will be attending talks on subjects like AI‘s application in nuclear weapon management and civilian protection.