Artificial intelligence will not decide on nuclear strikes, a top U.S. general said this week.
“When it comes to us and how we prosecute AI and machine learning, humans will absolutely be in the loop,” Gen. Anthony J. Cotton, commander of United States Strategic Command, told reporters on Aug. 13 during a briefing at the U.S. Strategic Command Deterrence Symposium in Nebraska.
Artificial intelligence can help U.S. officials analyze intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance data, according to Cotton. But the Strategic Command doesn’t have, nor does Cotton want, a computer making crucial decisions like what unfolded in the 1983 film “WarGames.”
“I’m not looking for the ”WarGames“ 1980s movie ‘WOPR’ solution. Right? No one is,” he said, referring to War Operation Plan Response.
Cotton added later: “But what I am saying, there’s incredible data that’s given to us ... that can be incredible useful for us, and we need to figure out how we can then manage that data to be able to then use, for a human to then make a decision.”
The White House said earlier this year that China won’t accept proposals from American officials to keep artificial intelligence away from nuclear launch decisions.
The United States position, and that of allies, is “we don’t think that autonomous systems should be getting near any decision to launch a nuclear weapon,” Cotton said.
But that is “not agreed by China to date,” he said.
Cotton said he hopes adversaries like China will come to adopt a position similar to that of America.
“I don’t know that you want a ‘WOPR’ to make a decision in regards to the utilization of not only nuclear weapons, but even conventional weapons without having humans in the loop because not understanding the dynamics of the decision that is made by the ‘WOPR,’ if you will, does in a conflict,” he said.
Cotton also spoke during the briefing about updating nuclear systems, saying he hopes to modernize systems while still making they can perform as needed.
And he also declined to detail his recent interactions with President Joe Biden, who has dropped out of the 2024 race but has not stepped down from the presidency.
“I have no concerns with the current commander-in-chief and his abilities to give me lawful orders if required,” Cotton said.
