US lawmakers propose bill to ban AI from launching nuclear weapons

A group of American congressmen introduced a bill prohibiting AI systems from autonomously deciding to use nuclear weapons.

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Nuclear weapons are horrifically damaging and devastating. In an increasingly digital age, we can’t allow robots to hold the power to command them. We must adopt the Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Act and ensure that AI will never make decisions to use deadly force.

— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) April 26, 2023

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“In the age of digital technologies, we cannot allow robots to take control over it [nuclear weapons]. We must adopt the Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Act to guarantee that AI will never make decisions to use deadly force,” wrote Senator Edward Markey, one of the authors of the bill.

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The U.S. Department of Defense already bans autonomous launches of nuclear weapons by artificial intelligence. The proposed bill aims to codify the Pentagon’s provisions, which state:

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“In all cases, the United States will keep a human “in the loop” for all actions that are decisive for informing and executing the president’s decisions to initiate and terminate the use of nuclear weapons.”

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The bill also states that no autonomous system without meaningful human control can launch nuclear weapons or “select targets” with the intent to strike them.

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“No decision to launch nuclear weapons should be made by artificial intelligence,” the text states.

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The lawmakers justify the intention to mirror the Pentagon’s rules in the law with the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence’s 2021 report. In it, the authors recommended banning autonomous launches of nuclear weapons not only for domestic regulation. Experts say this could spur similar commitments from China and Russia.

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The document will also draw attention to other efforts by proponents of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the authors say. As an example they cited the initiative that limits the U.S. president’s power to unilaterally declare nuclear war.

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Back in October 2022, the Netherlands deployed the first autonomous ‘killer robots’ for NATO.

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In December 2021, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres urged taking measures to regulate the use of autonomous weapons.