Hoping to prepare for what many see as a coming revolution in artificial intelligence-enabled weaponry ― and convince a skeptical public that it can apply such innovations responsibly ― the U.S. military is taking early steps to define the ethical boundaries for how it will use such systems. On Thursday, a Pentagon advisory organization called the Defense Innovation Board published a set of ethical principles for how military agencies should design AI-enabled weapons and apply them on the battlefield. The board's recommendations are in no way legally binding. It now falls to the Pentagon to determine how and whether to proceed with them. Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, director of the Defense Department's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, said he hopes the recommendations will set the standard for the responsible and ethical use of such tools.

In 2017, a group of 116 technology executives asked the United Nations to pursue an all-out ban on autonomous weapons. Google went so far as to completely ban the use of its AI algorithm in any weapons system, a decision that followed employee complaints over its involvement in a program to analyze drone footage. Other tech companies, such as Microsoft and Amazon, have embraced opportunities to work with the military while arguing for a more nuanced approach to the matter.