AI use in military gets endorsement from US, 59 others in Seoul summit

About 60 countries including the United States have endorsed a "blueprint for action" to govern the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the military.

The Responsible AI in the Military Domain (REAIM) summit in Seoul on Tuesday, the second of its kind, follows one held in The Hague last year.

Government representatives said this year's "blueprint" was more action-oriented, in keeping with advanced discussions and developments in the military such as AI-enabled drones being rolled out by Ukraine, which also endorsed the document.

"We are making further concrete steps," Netherlands Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans said. "Last year ... was more about creating shared understanding, now we are getting more towards action."

This includes laying out what kind of risk assessments should be made, important conditions such as human control, and how confidence-building measures can be taken in order to manage risks, he said.

Among the details added in the document was the need to prevent AI from being used to proliferate weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by actors including terrorist groups, and the importance of maintaining human control and involvement in nuclear weapons employment.

There are many other initiatives on the issue, such as the US government's declaration on responsible use of AI in the military launched last year.

Difference of views

The Seoul summit — co-hosted by the Netherlands, Singapore, Kenya and the United Kingdom — aims to ensure multi-stakeholder discussions are not dominated by a single nation or entity.

However, roughly 30 nations, including China, that sent a government representative to the summit but did not back the document, illustrating stark differences of views among the stakeholders.

"We also need to be realistic that we will never have the whole world on board," Defence Minister Brekelmans said.

"How do we deal with the fact that not everyone is complying? ... That is a complicated dilemma that we should also put on the table," he added.

The venue and timing for the next summit is still being discussed, officials said.

At the UN General Assembly in October, South Korean officials said they plan to discuss AI in the military domain based on the "blueprint".

Giacomo Persi Paoli, head of Programme Security and Technology at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), said countries should engage with others in between summits to mitigate any risks.

"The blueprint is an incremental step forward," he said. "By going too fast, too soon, there is a very high risk that many countries do not want to engage."