Parliamentary Search

Written question asked by Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 21 July 2022, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 4 August 2022. It was answered by Baroness Goldie (Conservative) on Thursday, 4 August 2022 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Defence: Artificial Intelligence

Question

To ask Her Majesty's Government, whether they will publish an annual list of all AI defence programmes they are working on, including the stage of implementation and the budget for each programme.

Answer

While Defence is committed to be as transparent as possible about our use of AI technologies, there are no plans at present to publish an annual list of all AI defence programmes due to practical and security reasons.

Defence understands AI as a family of general-purpose technologies with ubiquitous potential applications from the back office to the battlespace. We will publish an AI 'concept playbook" later this year to help partners to understand the areas of Research and Development that we intend to prioritise. However, it is important to understand that in most cases AI will be an enabler for a broader system or capability (e.g. supporting more informed logistics planning) not a capability programme in itself.

Given the range of potential applications, it would not be practical to label and track all sub-elements of projects underway across Defence that include Autonomy or AI. Moreover, in some cases it would not be appropriate to disclose details of Defence capability programmes for security reasons.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL1997
Session
2022-23
Subjects
Defence Artificial intelligence
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk