The political declaration on military AI
On 15-16 February 2023, at the REAIM summit in The Hague, the United States launched the Political Declaration on Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy. As of 27 November 2024 it had 58 endorsing states, Ukraine among them.
Why it matters
The first multilateral framework on military AI that a substantial part of the world joined, and the first time the limit of autonomy in the use of force was negotiated between states rather than inside one army. It is legally binding on nobody, which is the main thing to know about it.
The summit was held at the World Forum in The Hague with 60 countries attending, including the United States and China; Russia was not there. A separate outcome was a non-binding call to action. Sources disagree on how many states endorsed that call: one gives 57 and another 60. This does not bear on the declaration itself, but the disagreement is recorded here. The State Department dates the revised declaration text to 9 November 2023 and publishes it in five languages. The first plenary meeting of endorsing states was convened by the State Department and the Pentagon on 19-20 March 2024. The second REAIM summit was held in Seoul on 9-10 September 2024. This pass counted the endorsing-state list on the State Department page as it stood on 27 November 2024 and arrived at 58. The number in the text comes from counting that list, not from a figure stated in the source.