South Korea convened on Monday an international summit seeking to establish a blueprint for the responsible use of artificial intelligence in the military.
Any agreement is not expected to have binding powers to enforce it.
U.S., China Are Participating In The Summit
More than 90 countries including the United States and China have sent government representatives to the two-day summit in Seoul.
Second Such Gathering
This is second gathering of this kind.
The United States, China and other nations endorsed a modest “call to action” without legal commitment, at the first summit held in Amsterdam last year
A Blueprint Is Expected
The summit is expected to yield a blueprint for action.
Apart from this, it will strive to establish a minimum level of guard-rails for AI in the military and suggest principles of responsible use of AI in the domain.
“There are already principles laid out by NATO, by the U.S. or multiple other countries, so we tried to find the converging area and reflect that in this document.”
What The Summit Aims To Do?
It was unclear how many nations attending the summit would endorse the document on Tuesday, which is aiming to be a more detailed attempt to set boundaries on AI use in the military, but still likely lacking legal commitments.
The summit is not the only international set of discussions on AI use in the military.
U.N. countries that belong to the 1983 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) are discussing the need for potential restrictions on lethal autonomous weapons systems with an eye for compliance with international humanitarian law.
U.S. Had Launched A Declaration on Responsible AI Use In The Military
The U.S. government last year also launched a declaration on responsible use of AI in the military.
This declaration covers broader military application of AI, beyond weapons.
As of August, 55 countries have endorsed the declaration.
The Netherlands, Singapore, Kenya and the United Kingdom are co-hosting the Seoul summit.
The summit is pushing to ensure that multi-stakeholder discussions continue in a field where the private sector primarily drives technological developments.
However, governments are the main decision makers.
Registration For The Summit
About 2,000 people globally have registered to take part in the summit.
These include representatives from international organisations, academia and the private sector.
They are keen to participate in discussions on civilian protection and AI use in the control of nuclear weapons.
(With Inputs From Reuters)
