The Pentagon has formulated new ethical principles for using AI-based solutions by US military. These guidelines are to help the adoption of lawful and ethical uses of the technology by both combat and non-combat operations. 

According to the new rules usage of AI-based solutions should be responsible (DoD personnel should have appropriate levels of judgment and care for the development, deployment, and use of AI capabilities) equitable (department will take deliberate steps to minimize unintended bias in AI capabilities) traceable( AI capabilities will be developed and deployed such that relevant personnel possess an appropriate understanding of the technology, development processes, and operational methods applicable to AI capabilities, including with transparent and auditable methodologies, data sources, and design procedure and documentation) reliable( AI capabilities will have explicit, well-defined uses, and the safety, security, and effectiveness of such capabilities will be subject to testing and assurance within those defined uses across their entire life-cycle) and governable( the Department will design and engineer AI capabilities to fulfil their intended functions while possessing the ability to detect and avoid unintended consequences, and the ability to disengage or deactivate deployed systems that demonstrate unintended behaviour).

The older military rules of 2012 required humans to be in control of automated weapons. That rule did not address the broader uses of AI. The new rules will guide from intelligence-gathering and surveillance operations to predicting maintenance problems in planes or ships.

According to the US government's Department of Defence Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy, these principles lay the foundation for the ethical design, development, deployment and the use of AI by the Department of Defense. “There has to be a way to disengage or deactivate” automated systems if they are demonstrating unintended behaviour, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, director of the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center.

The Pentagon’s push to speed up its AI capabilities has incited a fight between tech companies over a $10 billion cloud computing contract known. While Microsoft won the contract it could not begin the project because Amazon sued the Pentagon