Alphabet's Eric Schmidt says Silicon Valley will need "AI principles" before working with US military

Silicon Valley is going to have to work through its qualms about providing AI services to the military, said Alphabet board member and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, Schmidt said that AI would be useful for "defensive and perhaps offensive purposes" in warfare, and developing the technology would have to be done with the help of the private sector. When asked by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) how this would work considering the "reluctance" of tech companies to work with the Department of Defense, Schmidt suggested that firms will need to agree between themselves on acceptable norms. "The industry is going to come to some set of agreements on AI principles -- what is appropriate use, what is not -- and my guess is that there will be some kind of consensus among key industry players on that," said Schmidt. Use SecureDrop or Signal to securely send messages and files to The Verge without revealing your identity.