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March 02, 2023

U.S. and China Can Show World Leadership by Safeguarding Military AI

By Paul Scharre

The recent balloon incident highlights the fragility of US-China relations and the risk of accidents and miscalculation. While balloons are a 200-year-old technology, the United States and China are developing new technologies that come with new risks. Chief among these is artificial intelligence (AI), which has many military applications but also can lead to accidents or humans overtrusting in machines.

The US and China must move beyond unilateral statements and begin developing shared confidence-building measures to manage the risks of military AI competition.

The hasty deployment by Microsoft and Google of chatbots like ChatGPT demonstrates the risks of moving too quickly with an unproven technology. Competitive pressures in the private sector have led tech companies to race ahead to field AI systems that are not safe. Nations must avoid similar temptations with military AI.

Read the full article from South China Morning Post.

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