Security Experts Want the US and China to Promise Never to Let AI Control Nukes

In brief

• Two U.S. and Chinese security experts proposed red lines barring AI from independently attacking nuclear systems.
• The authors also called for a military AI hotline and a shared definition of human control.
• AI’s speed and uncertain behavior could leave leaders with little time to stop an escalating conflict.

Security experts from the United States and China have proposed rules that would bar artificial intelligence from independently launching cyberattacks against nuclear command systems or deciding to use nuclear weapons.

A recent report by Brookings and Shanghai-based Fudan University urges the U.S. and China to extend their commitment to human control of nuclear weapons to other military uses of AI, including cyberattacks on nuclear command systems.

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“Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping can lead in governing these dangers by agreeing that only humans, not AI, should make the decision to initiate a cyberattack against each other’s nuclear command, control, and communications systems (NC3) or critical infrastructure,” the researchers wrote.

NC3 systems help governments detect threats, decide whether to use nuclear weapons, and transmit launch orders, but failures at any stage could disrupt communications, misread an attack, encourage a first strike, or trigger an accidental or unauthorized launch.

“Extending the principle applied to nuclear weapons—that attacks with strategic effects should express human intent and must be subject to human accountability—does not require Washington and Beijing to share other principles of cybersecurity or infrastructure protection,” the researchers wrote.

The proposed agreement would require both countries to reduce the risk that chance, human error, unpredictable AI, or unauthorized actors could trigger attacks with strategic consequences.