The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence has said, “the development of AI will shape the future of power.” AI is coming and coming hard. The meaningful application of law and ethics will help determine whether we maximize the opportunities and minimize and mitigate the risks. Law and ethics will, or could and should, distinguish democratic and American AI from authoritarian applications of AI. Law and ethics will bind like-minded alliances in the AI field and it will help to build and sustain public trust and support for appropriate AI applications. The converse is also likely. If, for example, the public does not trust the government’s use of AI because of certain facial recognition applications, it may not trust the government with using AI to facilitate contact tracing amidst a pandemic. This session will consider the ethical use of AI in national security decision-making including: (1) The use of predictive algorithms; (2) Potential AI decision-making redlines and permits; and (3) What national security lawyers should know and should ask about AI before it is used to inform and execute national security decisions.
Corin Stone is a Scholar-in-Residence at American University's Washington College of Law.
Hon. James E. Baker is the Director of the Institute of Security Policy and Law at Syracuse University.
This episode references:
- James E. Baker, The Centaur's Dilemma: National Security Law for the Coming AI Revolution. Brookings Institution Press, 2020.
Introduction; Chapter 10. - Department of National Intelligence, "Artificial Intelligence Ethics Framework for the Intelligence Community." June, 2020.
- Ashley Deeks, “Predicting Enemies,” 104 Virginia Law Review 1529 (2018).
- Department of Defense Ethical Principles for Artificial Intelligence.
- ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and Comments.
- "Principled Artificial Intelligence – Mapping Consensus in Ethical and Rights-Based Approaches to Principles for AI." Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Jan. 2020.
