This draft Code of Conduct for AI-enabled military systems is the product of a two-year consultation process among Chinese, American, and international experts convened in person and online by the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD).

The goal of the consultation process was to determine whether certain principles and limitations might be agreed regarding weapons and related military systems with significant AI components, especially among those international actors whose technology and deployment in this area is most advanced.

Participants in the dialogue included current academics and former officials with military, diplomatic, intelligence, weapons design and legal backgrounds from the United States, China and an international delegation from Europe and Latin America.

While some experts participated in previous UN conferences related to limitations on advanced weaponry – such as the UN CCW’s Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) Group of Governmental Experts – the purpose of the consultation was to break away from public positions and to see if a discreet process could find common ground on limitations before AI-enabled military systems become so commonly used as to make future limitation impractical.

Introduction