Defense Innovation Board to Explore the Ethics of AI in War

As artificial intelligence mature, the Defense Department wants to make sure it is deploying the technology effectively and ethically. To ensure this, the department is looking to one of its public liaisons: the Defense Innovation Board.

During its quarterly public meeting on Oct. 10, the advisory board—made of up representatives from the defense industry and academia that works directly with the Defense Department—discussed the latest advances in AI and moved to formalize a review of how the military can and should use the technology.

The work began in July when Defense Secretary James Mattis asked the board to begin work on a set of AI principles the department can follow as it develops this nascent technology and begins to deploy it in the Pentagon and on the battlefield.

“It is abundantly clear from the discussions thus far, the department’s experts on AI already have a deep appreciation, even a healthy skepticism for the limitations of AI, as well as its promise,” said Joshua Marcuse, the board’s executive director and adviser to the Defense Department’s chief management officer, reading what would become the board’s official description of its review work. “I myself witnessed how deeply committed the women and men who work in the department are to ethical standards, starting with the secretary of defense.”