The Alliance held its first Data and Artificial Intelligence Leadership Conference this week. Its overarching theme was to “define a common set of standards and principles for Allies to use AI in a responsible and enforceable manner”
The task to develop them is entrusted to the NATO Data Analysis and Review Board (DARB), the establishment of which was approved by the bloc’s defence ministers in October. The first version of the standards is due to appear by the end of 2023.
The Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) and the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) will also be actively involved, specialising in financing, developing and implementing new breakthrough dual-use technologies, of which AI is the main one.
Only projects for the alliance with commercialisation potential will receive funding. Military and civilian sectors are to be combined in the work on AI.
The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) explains NATO’s focus on this topic as follows:
“The proliferation of technological knowledge allows individuals, non-state actors, terrorists, financial criminals and others to wield previously unimaginable degrees of power and influence over public goods, systems and lives.”
According to CSIS, the alliance is already “using artificial intelligence to some extent to detect military threats”. In time, the technology is planned to be used “to protect NATO systems, raise awareness of possible threats and, if necessary, defeat enemies on the battlefield.”
Apparently, a turning point in military affairs will be the transfer of the right to use weapons from humans to artificial intelligence. Variants of possible negative consequences are well described by Hollywood.
Elena Panina