Ethical Principles for Artificial Intelligence in National Defence

TLDR

Defence agencies worldwide view AI as a critical technology to maintain strategic advantage, yet ethical guidance for its use remains insufficient. This article proposes an ethical framework for AI in national defence. The framework outlines five principles—justified and overridable use, justice and transparency, human moral responsibility, meaningful human control, and reliable AI systems—along with recommendations to promote ethically sound AI deployment.

Abstract

Abstract Defence agencies across the globe identify artificial intelligence (AI) as a key technology to maintain an edge over adversaries. As a result, efforts to develop or acquire AI capabilities for defence are growing on a global scale. Unfortunately, they remain unmatched by efforts to define ethical frameworks to guide the use of AI in the defence domain. This article provides one such framework. It identifies five principles—justified and overridable uses, just and transparent systems and processes, human moral responsibility, meaningful human control and reliable AI systems—and related recommendations to foster ethically sound uses of AI for national defence purposes.