China's National Defense Ministry pledges to regulate military use of AI

Today, a spokesperson of China’s National Defense Ministry reacted to a question regarding possible cooperation with the US on regulating military use of AI.

11月30日下午，国防部举行例行记者会，国防部新闻局局长、国防部新闻发言人吴谦大校答记者问。

记者：近日，有媒体报道称中美可能同意限制人工智能在不受监督情况下的军用化。请介绍中方在人工智能军事应用方面的立场。

吴谦：前不久，在第三届“一带一路”国际合作高峰论坛开幕式上，习近平主席宣布中方提出《全球人工智能治理倡议》，发出了引领全球人工智能治理的中国强音。近年来，中国向联合国平台提交了关于规范人工智能军事应用、加强人工智能伦理治理等立场文件，坚持建设性参与人工智能全球治理。

中方高度重视人工智能军事应用带来的安全风险，呼吁各国尤其是大国对在军事领域研发和使用人工智能技术采取慎重负责的态度，反对利用人工智能技术优势危害他国主权和领土安全。中方愿按照“以人为本”、“智能向善”原则，与各方加强交流合作，就人工智能军事应用的发展规范寻求共识，避免相关武器系统的误用、滥用甚至恶用，确保有关武器系统永远处于人类控制之下。

Wu Qian: President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Initiative for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Governance at the 3rd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, which contributed China’s wisdom to guide global AI governance. China has submitted position papers to the UN concerning regulating military application of AI and strengthening moral governance of AI and participates in global AI governance in a constructively manner.

China pays close attention to security risks posed by military applications of AI technologies. We call on all countries, especially major countries, to adopt a prudent and responsible attitude to the research, development and application of AI technologies in the military field. China is opposed to using AI advantages to undermine the sovereignty of other countries. Following a human-oriented approach and the principle of developing AI for good, the Chinese side is ready to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with different parties, build consensus on regulating military use of AI, avoid the misuse, abuse and malicious use of relevant weapon systems, and ensure absolute human control over these weapon systems.

The rapid development of AI technology has made major powers see the value of its military use. Development and deployment of unmanned military platforms have raised global security and humanitarian concerns about AI weapons, the most prominent of which is the so-called "Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) " or "killer robots".

Since 2014, the nations have conducted many negotiations on this issue under the framework of the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. However, no consensus has yet been reached due to different national interests and stages of AI development in various countries.

Both China and the US participated in the negotiations. Generally, it appears that China has employed some form of “strategic ambiguity” in regulating military use of AI and seeks to maintain the consistency of its peaceful rise narrative, gain legitimacy for its AWS development, and establish limits on more advanced US autonomous weapons.

In China, there are many views that the US is making a lot of noise in promoting arms control for lethal autonomous weapon systems but is making every effort to promote the militarization of AI. Even if a treaty on AI weapons is negotiated, it is difficult to guarantee that the US will not withdraw from it, as the Trump administration withdrew from the INF Treaty.

However, the feeling on the US side is that China has no interest in arms control of AI weapons. It was said that the US has approached China to regulate the military use of AI but has not received a positive response.

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who passed away today at the age of 100, frequently referenced history: In the early morning of September 26, 1983, a computer at a Soviet nuclear attack early warning base suddenly alerted that the US had launched five intercontinental ballistic missiles against the Soviet Union. Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer on duty at the time, judged that the warning might be a false alarm and decided to report to his superiors that it was a system failure, thus avoiding a nuclear war. Later, it was proved that the Soviet satellite mistakenly mistook the sunlight reflected by the clouds for the engine of the intercontinental missile. Kissinger believed that if artificial intelligence controlled the decision-making system of the nuclear bomb, the situation would be worse and could bring disaster to humanity.

In 2015, China and the US reached a "five-point consensus" on cyber security under similar circumstances to address issues such as cyber-attacks on business secrets. Although China and the United States did not reach an agreement on AI during the Los Angeles summit, they could at least start a governmental dialogue. The fact that two major countries with advanced AI technology can sit down and discuss this issue is a significant breakthrough.