South Korea Summit Aims 'Blueprint' For Using AI In The Military (image@ Pixabay)

South Korea convened an international summit seeking to establish a blueprint for the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the military. More than 90 countries including US and China sent representatives to the two-day summit held in Seoul. No agreement reached have binding powers to enforce it.

This is the second such summit to take place, with the first one held at Amsterdam last year, with several nations calling for a modest “call to action”, without legal commitment. The Seoul summit was co-hosted by Netherlands, Singapore, Kenya, and UK.

In an opening address, South Korea’s Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun said an AI-applied Ukrainian drone functioned as “David’s slingshot” in its war with Russia.

“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,” he said.

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Cho Tae-yul, the country’s Foreign Minister, said discussion would cover areas like legal review to ensure compliance with international law and mechanisms to prevent autonomous weapons from making life-and-death decisions without proper human oversight.

The summit hoped to agree come to terms with a blueprint for actions, establishing a minimum level of guard-rails for AI in the military and suggesting principles on responsible use by reflecting principles laid out by NATO, by US, or a number of other countries, as per a senior South Korean official, said Reuters.

It was not clarified how many nations attending the summit would endorse the document, which is seeking to be a more detailed attempt to set boundaries on use of AI in the military. However, they still lack legal commitments.

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The Seoul summit is not the only international set of discussions on AI use in military. The United Nation countries that belong to the 1983 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) are discussing potential restrictions on lethal autonomous weapons systems for compliance with international humanitarian law.

Last year, US launched a declaration on responsible use of AI in the military. The declaration covered broader military application of AI, beyond weapons. According to Reuters, as of August this year, 55 countries have endorsed for the declaration.

The South Korea summit was aimed at ensuring ongoing multi-stakeholder discussions in a filed where technological developments are primarily driven by the private sector. However, the governments are the major decision makers here.