South Korea Summit Seeks Blueprint To Use AI In Military

More than 90 countries, including the USA and China, participated in the international South Korea Summit that convened on Monday.

The international South Korea Summit convened on Monday, with a potential agreement between top countries. Though without legal commitments, the agreement may form a guided guardrail for AI in military use. Over 90 countries participated in the summit, including the USA and China. 

The event was co-hosted by the Netherlands, Singapore, Kenya, and the United Kingdom to ensure multi-stakeholder discussions around mass actions driven by government bodies. Even though private organizations achieve many technological advancements in upgrading the war arsenal of a country, the final decision maker is the government.

With this Summit, South Korea seeks to achieve a blueprint for using AI in military campaigns.

"Recently, in the Russia-Ukraine war, an AI-applied Ukrainian drone functioned as David's slingshot."

- Kim Yong-hyun ( Defence Minister, South Korea)

The reference taken by Kim was from Ukraine’s growing advancements in applying AI technology to drive success in war campaigns against Russia.

“As AI is applied to the military domain, the military's operational capabilities are dramatically improved. However, it is like a double-edged sword, as it can cause damage from abuse."

- Kim Yong-hyun

The integration of AI in military use can act as a doorway for bad threat actors to get into classified systems and cause fatal harm.

AI has not yet evolved in terms of security and privacy to the extent that global militaries risk its usage for short-term advantage. That’s why, while we see major advancements in generative AI around other aspects like entertainment, data analytics, and efficiency, it is still being held back from action in the field.

With Ukraine’s first-mover advantage, 90+ countries have agreed to cover discussions around legal review of compliance with international laws set by a core body that may be formed later this year. This agreement, however, does not hold any legal commitment, much like the earlier Summit that happened last year. Governing bodies like NATO from the US will likely get involved in further discussions around artificial intelligence regulations for military use.