Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays an increasingly important role within the Dutch Ministry of Defence (MoD), e.g., for using unmanned autonomous systems, AI-assisted military decision making, autonomous logistics, and predictive maintenance. In addition to promoting the efficiency, effectiveness and safety of the Dutch armed forces, AI technology is required to cope with new challenges in peacekeeping and warfare, such as dealing with misinformation, adversary use of AI, and processing large amounts of (drone-borne) sensor data.
However, the introduction of AI-technology in defence raises a host of ethical, legal, and societal concerns, including how to keep AI-powered systems under meaningful human control, how to maintain human agency and dignity when giving autonomy to machines, and how to operate within legal boundaries. For responsible implementation, these and other aspects must be continuously addressed in the design and maintenance of AI-based systems, military doctrine, and training. How to do this is insufficiently understood. The question rises how the MoD can remain strategically competitive and at the edge of military innovation while respecting our values.
The ELSA Lab Defence addresses this question by developing a future-proof, independent and consultative ecosystem for the responsible use of AI in the defence domain. The lab will develop a methodology for context-dependent analysis, design and evaluation of ethical, legal and societal aspects of military AI-based applications. It builds upon existing methods for value-sensitive design, explainable algorithms and human-machine teaming. These methods are adapted to the specific defence context by conducting representative case studies, such as use of (semi-)autonomous robots, and AI-based methods against cognitive warfare. The lab also studies how society and defence personnel perceive the use of military AI, how this perception evolves over time, and how it changes in various contexts. Additionally, the ELSA Lab Defence monitors global technological, military, and societal developments that could influence perception.
