During an event hosted by the Hudson Institute, the U.S. Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, Lt. Gen. Richard G. Moore Jr., asserted the superior ethical position of the U.S. military’s approach to artificial intelligence (AI), attributing it to the country’s “Judeo-Christian” societal underpinnings.
Moore emphasized, “Regardless of what your beliefs are, our society is a Judeo-Christian society, and we have a moral compass. Not everybody does. And there are those that are willing to go for the ends regardless of what means have to be employed.”
He proceeded to explain how the future of AI in warfare would be determined by the societies that adhere to the rules of warfare and those that do not, although he did not specify any countries.
The Pentagon has engaged in high-level discussions about AI ethics, according to Moore.
He expanded on his comments in an email to The Washington Post, explaining, “The foundation of my comments was to explain that the Air Force is not going to allow AI to take actions, nor are we going to take actions on information provided by AI unless we can ensure that the information is in accordance with our values.”
He acknowledged that this stance may not be exclusive to U.S. society, but he does not expect it to be shared by any potential adversaries.
These comments come at a time when U.S. government officials are developing guidelines for the ethical use of AI in warfare.
The Department of Defense adopted standards for the ethical use of AI in 2020, and the State Department released a declaration on “responsible military use of artificial intelligence and autonomy” in February.
However, Alex John London, a professor of ethics and computational technologies at Carnegie Mellon University, noted that the ethical challenges presented by AI transcend religious and philosophical boundaries.
“There’s a lot of work in the ethics space that’s not tied to any religious perspective, that focuses on the importance of valuing human welfare, human autonomy, having social systems that are just and fair,” he stated, according to The Post. “The concerns reflected in AI ethics are broader than any single tradition.”
Although Moore did not explicitly name U.S. adversaries, his comments come against the backdrop of increasing concerns about China’s growing AI capabilities.
Mark Metcalf, a retired U.S. naval officer and lecturer at the University of Virginia, noted that China’s AI ethics approach is fundamentally different from the U.S.’s, heavily influenced by its history and the ideologies of Marxism and Leninism.
Metcalf observed that despite these differences, China does not disregard ethical issues surrounding military AI.
He noted, “Once you turn over control of a weapons system to an algorithm, worst case, then the party loses control.”
The political ambitions of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) guide the country’s policies, aiming to leverage AI technology without compromising Chinese Communist Party (CCP) control, he added.
