AI May Be Moving in the Wrong Direction

By JASON SIBERT

The geopolitical conflicts that are tearing any sense of international law apart are moving an important technology in the wrong direction.

Artificial intelligence might have interesting applications in the civilian world, but its application to weapons of destruction are very scary indeed. For the past two years, the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, established by Congress, has been working to integrate artificial intelligence into weapons of mass destruction, as stated by Michael T. Klare in his story “AI Commission Warns of Escalatory Dangers.” According to its charter, the NSCAI was enjoined to consider the “means and methods for the United States to maintain a technological advantage in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other associated technologies related to national security and defense.”

The NSCAI released a report this year with three main themes: AI constitutes a breakthrough technology that will transform all aspects of human endeavor, including warfare, the US risks losing out to China and Russia in the competitive struggle to harness AI for military purposes, putting the nation’s security at risk, and the federal government must play a far more assertive role in mobilizing the nation’s scientific and technical talent to accelerate the utilization of AI by the military. Klare stated the report had a distinct Cold War character in which AI is a determining factor in the outcome of future conflicts, as it said: “in the future, warfare will pit algorithm against algorithm. The sources of battlefield advantage will shift from traditional factors like force size and levels of armaments, to factors like superior date collection and assimilation, connectivity, computer power, algorithms, and system security.”

The report said that our country might lose out to China in the long run and that the Asian power might surpass us as an AI power in a decade. Most of our computing power is in academia and the private sector. The report recommends that we utilize the military’s research and development arm to pull ahead on computer science. Klare stated the report did touch on issues of concern for the arms control community, like autonomous weapons and nuclear escalation. It said that China and Russia cannot be relied upon to follow any laws or ethical standards in the use of autonomous weapons on the battlefield. So, the report ruled out any US adherence to any international prohibition on the deployment of such systems.

The mentioned weapons cannot be trusted to follow any sort of international law because, like all technology, these weapons are susceptible to human error. Arms control advocates point to the fact that reliance on AI-enabled command and control systems in the heat of battle could lead to the early and unintended use of nuclear weapons, kicking off a nuclear war. Arms control advocates recommend human control over all such weapons systems. Klare recommends talks between the US, China, and Russia on banning AI from nuclear weapons systems. These ideas were incorporated into the mentioned report.

Only time will tell if we can maintain human control over such weapons. Hopefully, human control amounts to an intern arrangement until we can apply proper arms control treaties to tame them.

Jason Sibert is the executive director of the Peace Economy Project in St. Louis, Mo. Email jasonsibert@hotmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, July 1-15, 2021

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