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.
A modest “call to action” without any legal commitment was accepted by the US, China, and other countries at the first summit, which took place in Amsterdam last year.
“Recently, in the Russia-Ukraine war, an AI-applied Ukrainian drone functioned as David’s slingshot,” South Korean Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun said in an opening address.
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.
“As AI is applied to the military domain, the military’s operational capabilities are dramatically improved. However it is like a double-edged sword, as it can cause damage from abuse,” Kim said.
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 US, or a number of other countries.
The statement, which seeks to be a more thorough attempt to set restrictions on AI usage in the military but still probably lacks legal obligations, was not expected to receive the support of many of the participating nations for the meeting on Tuesday.
