Artificial intelligence

The Pentagon now has 5 principles for artificial intelligence

1. Responsible. DoD personnel will exercise appropriate levels of judgment and care, while remaining responsible for the development, deployment, and use of AI capabilities.
2. Equitable. The department will take deliberate steps to minimize unintended bias in AI capabilities.
3. Traceable. The department’s AI capabilities will be developed and deployed so that staffers have an appropriate understanding of the technology, development processes, and operational methods that apply to AI. This includes transparent and auditable methodologies, data sources, and design procedure and documentation.
4. Reliable. The department’s AI capabilities will have explicit, well-defined uses, and the safety, security, and effectiveness of such capabilities will be subject to testing.
5. Governable. The department will design and engineer AI capabilities to fulfill their intended functions while possessing the ability to detect and avoid unintended consequences, and the ability to disengage or deactivate deployed systems that demonstrate unintended behavior.

The principles follow recommendations made by the Defense Innovation Board to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in October following a 15-month process, where the board met with AI experts from industry, government and academia.