Exclusive: Dems introduce bill for "responsible" defense AI
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Democratic lawmakers will roll out a bill setting guidelines for the military's use of advanced AI next week, per an announcement first shared with Axios.
Why it matters: The bill is one in a series of responses from members of Congress concerned about how AI can be used in defense or make deadly decisions without human oversight.
Driving the news: Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) will introduce the Responsible Artificial Intelligence in Defense Act on Monday.
What's inside: The bill would establish a framework governing how the Pentagon acquires, tests and uses AI-enabled autonomous weapon systems.
- It would direct the Pentagon to have human oversight and a manual override capability "until AI systems achieve a reliability threshold," per a memo about the bill shared first with Axios, along with prohibiting the use of military AI "for mass surveillance of persons inside the United States."
- It would direct the Pentagon to require "humans in the loop" during operation of AI-enabled systems and require privacy assessments.
- It would also prohibit AI from "making the decision to launch a nuclear weapon" from "lethal autonomous force," or from tracking people in the U.S.
What they're saying: "Artificial intelligence is a rapidly evolving technology, and its incorporation into military operations — particularly lethal autonomous systems — is genuinely new territory," the memo reads.
- "A rigorous framework for human oversight is not a brake on adoption; it is the foundation that makes sustainable, confident adoption possible."
Between the lines: These lawmakers were prompted to write this bill after the Pentagon and Anthropic started publicly fighting over the use of Anthropic's AI in classified settings, eventually resulting in the Pentagon designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk, which it is challenging in court.
The big picture: It's not the first bill to come out of the Pentagon-Anthropic spat.
- Both Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) have introduced similar bills.
