- US, China among 50 nations attending first military AI summit
- It is not clear whether this will result in a joint statement
- Netherlands, South Korea are co-hosts
- Summit takes place amid war in Ukraine, renewed interest in AI
AMSTERDAM, Feb 14 (Portal) – Delegations from both the United States and China will attend a summit on the “responsible” use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the military, the first of its kind, in the Netherlands this week.
While it’s not clear that the 50 participating countries will agree to back even a weak policy statement by the Netherlands and co-host South Korea, the conference comes as interest in AI more broadly is at an all-time high thanks to the launch of the ChatGPT program of OpenAI two months ago.
The organizers did not invite the Russian Federation because of the conflict in Ukraine, which will be a main topic of discussion at the summit, which will take place in The Hague on February 15-16.
“This is an idea for which the time has come,” Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra told the foreign press in the run-up to the event. “We are taking the first step in articulating and working towards what responsible use of AI in the military will look like.”
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The event could be an early step towards one day developing an international arms treaty on AI, although that is seen as a long way off.
Leading nations have so far refused to agree to restrictions on its use for fear of being disadvantaged.
Around 2,000 people, including experts and academics, will attend a conference alongside the summit, covering topics such as killer drones and battle bots.
At a presentation on Thursday, the US Department of Defense will discuss where it sees potential for international cooperation.
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in the Netherlands pointed to a position paper in which China underscored the need to avoid “strategic miscalculations” with AI and ensure it doesn’t inadvertently escalate a conflict.
UN countries party to the 1983 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) have been discussing potential limitations on lethal autonomous weapon systems capable of killing without human intervention since 2014.
Hoekstra said the summit will not replace that debate but will look at other aspects of military AI.
Examples include defining terms, how AI could be used safely to speed up decision-making in a military context, and how it could be used to identify legitimate targets.
“We are in an area that we do not know, for which we have no guidelines, rules, framework conditions or agreements. But we’ll need them sooner rather than later,” Hoekstra said.
reporting by Toby Sterling; Adaptation by David Holmes
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