The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) officials are putting forth new questions in front of member states to understand what are their views of artificial intelligence (AI) in defence applications as the intergovernmental military alliance between 30 European and North American countries seeks common ground ahead of their plans to create a strategy document at the June 14 NATO summit. 

NATO has been seeking to have a more focused and informed approach to include emerging and disruptive technologies in its future vision. To be a leading force in military tech globally, it is imperative that NATO prioritises autonomous and AI-enabled weaponry. However, it isn't yet clear on the limitations and the extent of how much the member states will allow and discourage AI-powered defence technology. 

“We have agreed that we need principles of responsible use, but we’re also in the process of delineating specific technologies,” David van Weel, the alliance’s assistant secretary-general for emerging security challenges, said at a web event earlier this month organized by the Estonian Defence Ministry.

The rules for controlling the technology would vary according to the imminent threat the system could pose. For eg- an algorithm sifting through data as part of a back-office operation at NATO headquarters in Brussels would be subjected to a different level of scrutiny than an autonomous weapon.

The guidelines will also help related industries create systems and weapons well within the NATO policies in AI. Those range from basic introspections about whether AI-enabled systems fall under NATO’s “legal mandates,” van Weel explained, to whether a given system is free of bias, meaning if its decision-making tilts in a particular direction.