Military AI Run Amok – Who’s In Charge? Who’s To Blame?

TUESDAY PDB – Can we go “full Terminator”? When AI makes a fatal mistake, who's to blame? Air Force Secretary weighs morality and reality. The secretary is a strong proponent of the Air Force's rapidly accelerating drone wingman effort, but the service's top civilian also believes that more work is needed to establish a clear standard for liability if unmanned systems violate the laws of armed conflict.

“Whatever weapon systems we employ have to be consistent with the laws of armed conflict. The problem isn't that. We know what those rules are, and I think we know how to impose them on our systems,” said Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall.

“It's who do you hold accountable?”

Meanwhile, Kendall has also worried aloud for years that a human operator might make decisions too slowly to survive against a fully computer-controlled threat, and has personally witnessed the capabilities of an AI-controlled jet.

At the Reagan Forum last December, he declared: “If the human being is in the loop, you will lose. You can have human supervision, you can watch over what the AI is doing. If you try to intervene, you're going to lose.”

Beyond the accountability problem, Kendall also raised concerns he's voiced repeatedly: that America's adversaries, namely China, won't abide by the same ethical constraints.

Memo on AI's national-security implications heads for Biden's desk. Joe Biden is expected to receive a classified memo outlining AI's threats to national security and suggesting limits to its deployment.

Ordered up by Biden's October executive order on AI, the memo is meant to help “develop a coordinated executive-branch approach to managing AI's security risks,” and it is expected to build on last year's guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget and international commitments discussed in recent meetings at Bletchley Park and Italy.

“This [memorandum] is focused on national security systems which exist in military and intelligence agencies, but also some of FBI's and DHS's systems also will qualify,” a person familiar with the expected contents of the memo said.

The memo will not directly change AI procurement but will likely carry “significant implications” for cloud service providers and frontier model developers and their understanding of how to responsibly deploy these technologies.

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here's a roundup of today's other top defense stories from conservative national security expert PAUL CRESPO.

Not the President's Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL'S DAILY BRIEFING – the PDB:

NATIONAL SECURITY

How the US and allies can convince more citizens to serve. Militaries don't just need more weapons to deter Russia and China — they need soldiers to man them.

HOMELAND SECURITY

North Korean charged in cyberattacks on US bases, defense firms. The military intelligence operative has been indicted in a conspiracy to hack into American health care providers, NASA, U.S. military bases and international entities, stealing sensitive information and installing ransomware to fund more attacks.

Army officer facing discharge deletes training materials, calls Russian embassy, feds say. The same night a U.S. Army officer filmed himself deleting Army training materials while he was being discharged from the military, he called the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

PENTAGON WOKE WATCH

Navy to clear records for some sailors who refused COVID-19 vaccine due to religious objections. This, according to a lawsuit settlement reached between the service and sailors last week.

POLITICS

Netanyahu's US visit revealed ‘no workable plan' for peace, critics say. A “day after” strategy for Gaza is a critical component of Joe Biden's vision. Lawmakers say that, for all the effort, it remains a pipe dream.

EMBARRASSING BOONDOGGLE! – The Gaza pier mission: Was the joint Army-Navy aid effort worth it? After tens of millions of dollars of expense and just under three weeks' worth of operating capability, was the Gaza pier a boondoggle or a success?

US POWER OVERSEAS

US to revamp its command in Japan amid renaissance in defense ties. US secretaries of state and defense traveled to Tokyo for meetings with their Japanese counterparts Sunday, where they announced new commitments to build and repair weapons together, securely share intelligence and to expand their posture in Japan's southwest islands, which sit near Taiwan.

CHINA THREAT

Japan to create island missile range as next step in standoff defense strategy. Japan's army plans to build a firing range on its easternmost island for surface-to-ship missile drills, part of its military build-up to counter regional rival China.

Southeast Asian diplomats meet with China as friction mounts over Beijing's sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea.

RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR

Russia's Putin vows ‘mirror measures' in response to US missiles in Germany. Russia may deploy new strike weapons in response to the planned U.S. stationing of longer-range and hypersonic missiles in Germany, Vladimir Putin said on Sunday.

Agreement with Russia is ‘deal with the devil,' adviser to Ukrainian president says. This, as pressure mounts on the country to seek an end to more than two years of fighting.

F-16 fighters arrive in Ukraine but may not tip advantage against Russia. The long-awaited combat jets are set to be flying in Ukraine within weeks, but once championed by Kyiv as a game changer, they are unlikely to have an immediate impact on the battlefield, where Russia is slowly advancing.

IRAN THREAT

B-52 traverses Middle East from Europe as US troops in Iraq and Syria are attacked on July 25 and July 26.

SPACE THREAT

Space Force mulling nuclear protection for missile-tracking satellites. The Space Force has launched a study to consider what capabilities to host on future satellites that detect and track advanced, high-speed weapons.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

With uncertainty across the Atlantic, Europe worries about its own security. When Donald Trump suggested during the 2016 presidential campaign that he might not honor a U.S. commitment to defend other NATO countries if they were attacked, it triggered alarm throughout the trans-Atlantic alliance.

Both Venezuela strongman Nicolas Maduro and opposition claim election win, as US and regional allies voice ‘serious concerns' about official results handing victory to the strongman leader.

Dozens of Russian mercenaries killed in attack in Mali. Tuareg rebels seeking autonomy in the West African country killed the Russian mercenaries last week in what appeared to be one of the deadliest attacks on Russian personnel on the continent since Moscow first sent Wagner Group guns-for-hire there in 2017.

95 Libyan nationals arrested in South Africa at suspected secret military training camp. Authorities said they were investigating whether there were more illegal bases in other parts of the country.

US MILITARY

Navy is on track to rearm warships at sea in 2-3 years. This capability would keep warships in the fight rather than forcing them to return to port during combat as is now the case.

POLICE SIG P320S HAVE SAME ISSUE – Sig Sauer guns hanging on soldiers' hips may be firing without trigger pull. A military police sergeant stood chatting with his supervisor inside an office at Fort Eustis in Virginia when another soldier, on his way to the refrigerator, tried to squeeze past him.

END of PDB

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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