SEOUL, Sept 10 (Askume) – Nearly 60 countries including the United States signed up to an “action blueprint” on Tuesday to regulate the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the military, but China was among them. A non-legally binding document.
The Responsible Artificial Intelligence in the Military (REAIM) summit in Seoul is the second such summit, following last year’s summit in The Hague. At that time, about 60 countries, including China, signed a modest “call to action” without legal commitments.
Government representatives said Tuesday that this year’s “blueprint” is more mission-oriented and takes into account advanced military discussions and developments, such as Ukraine’s introduction of artificial intelligence drones.
“We are taking more concrete steps,” Dutch Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans told Askume.
He said this includes explaining what kind of risk assessment should be carried out and what key conditions should be in place, such as human controls, and what trust-building measures can be taken to manage risk.
Details added to the document include the need to prevent other actors, including terrorist groups, from using artificial intelligence to promote the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and the importance of maintaining human control and participation in the use of nuclear weapons.
There are also several other initiatives on this issue, such as the US government’s announcement last year about the responsible use of artificial intelligence in the military.
The Seoul Summit, co-hosted by the Netherlands, Singapore, Kenya and the UK, aims to ensure that multi-stakeholder discussions are not dominated by any single country or entity.
Although China was one of nearly 30 countries to send government representatives to the summit, it did not endorse the document, highlighting deep differences among stakeholders.
Defense Secretary Blakemans added: “We also have to be realistic that we will never be able to unite the world.”
“How do we deal with the fact that not everybody is complying? …That’s a complex dilemma we have to face,” he said.
The location and timing of the next summit were still under discussion, officials said.
At the United Nations General Assembly in October, South Korean officials said they planned to begin discussing the use of artificial intelligence in the military based on the “blueprint.”
Giacomo Perci Paoli, head of programme security and technology at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), said countries should work together with each other during the summit to reduce risks.
“This blueprint is an incremental step,” he said. “Moving too quickly is very risky and many countries will not want to get involved.”
