US Presses China, Russia to Declare AI Will Have No Control Over Nuclear Weapons Deployment

An inert Minuteman 3 missile is seen in a training launch tube at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., on June 25, 2014. AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

A senior U.S. official has called on China and Russia to align with the United States’ declaration that only humans, not artificial intelligence (AI), will have control over the use of nuclear weapons.

State Department arms control official Paul Dean said that Washington has made “a very clear and strong commitment” that the decision to deploy nuclear weapons “would only be made by a human being.”

“We would never defer a decision on nuclear employment to AI,” Mr. Dean, the principal deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence and Stability, said in an online briefing on May 2.

The United States “strongly stands by that statement,” he said, adding that other countries such as the United Kingdom and France have also made similar declarations.

“We would welcome a similar statement by China and the Russian Federation,” Mr. Dean said.

“We think it’s an extremely important norm of responsible behavior, and we think it’s something that would be very welcomed in a P5 context,” the official added.

He was referring to the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, which include China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, all of which are recognized by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as states with nuclear weapons.

China and Russia have not issued any statements in response to his remarks.

US, China Agree to Hold Bilateral Talks On AI

Mr. Dean’s remarks came just a week after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited China for talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on April 26. He also met with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping.

Mr. Blinken told reporters in Beijing that both sides agreed to hold their first bilateral talks on AI “in the coming weeks.” He said that they would share views on the risks and safety concerns around advanced AI and how best to manage them.

“As [President Joe Biden] made clear, that we continue to communicate clearly about our differences, at the very least to minimize the chance of miscalculation, misunderstandings,” he said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has also confirmed that it would hold AI talks with the United States, without specifying a date. It said the two sides reached “a five-point consensus” during their meeting.

According to the Pentagon’s 2022 China Power Report, China is implementing a launch-on-warning protocol, called “early warning counterstrike,” under which a warning of a missile strike leads to a counterstrike before an enemy first strike can detonate.

This raises concerns because a false positive on nuclear tracking systems might escalate into a full-blown nuclear war if either nation allows AI to make decisions about nuclear launches.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) attends a meeting with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, on April 26, 2024. Mark Schiefelbein/AFP

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill last year to formally suspend the New START treaty, its last remaining nuclear arms pact with the United States, amid tensions over the war in Ukraine.

Russia has said that it could not accept U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites under the pact at a time when Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared Russia’s defeat in Ukraine as their goal.

Signed by then-presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev in 2010, the treaty limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, while the agreement envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.

President Joe Biden in early 2021 signed another five-year extension of the treaty.

The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation estimates that Russia’s arsenal consists of about 5,977 nuclear warheads, while the United States currently has about 5,550 warheads.

Andrew Thornebrooke and Jack Phillips contributed to this report.