The Department of Defense (“DOD”) Defense Innovation Board released a report on October 31 that takes an important step toward closing a gap in the discussion around the military’s use of Artificial Intelligence — the perceived absence of ethical constraints on using AI and similar technology. Many may recall in 2018 thousands of Google employees signed a letter arguing that the company should not design and build “warfare technology,” which ultimately helped lead to Google deciding not to renew an AI project with the DOD.

The report from the DIB, a group of science and technology experts led by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, proposes a set of five overarching ethical principles for the use of AI by the DOD. Those principles tie the DOD’s existing laws of war and rules of engagement into the use of AI.

The principles can be distilled to the following: (1) humans should exercise appropriate levels of judgment and remain responsible for the development and use of AI systems; (2) deliberate steps should be taken to avoid unintended bias that would inadvertently cause harm to persons; (3) The department’s AI engineering discipline should be sufficiently advanced; (4) The department’s AI systems should have an explicit, well-defined domain of use, and testing process; (5)The department’s AI systems should be designed and engineered to fulfill their intended function while avoiding unintended harm or disruption.

DOD officials have signaled that they intend to act on the DIB report.