Fifth principle: Reliability
AI enabled systems must be demonstrably reliable, robust and secure.
The MOD’s AI enabled systems must be suitably reliable; they must fulfil their intended design and deployment criteria and perform as expected, within acceptable performance parameters. Those parameters must be regularly reviewed and tested for reliability to be assured on an ongoing basis, particularly as AI enabled systems learn and evolve over time, or are deployed in new contexts.
Given Defence’s unique operational context and the challenges of the information environment, this principle also requires AI enabled systems to be secure, and a robust approach to cybersecurity, data protection and privacy.
MOD personnel working with or alongside AI enabled systems can build trust in those systems by ensuring that they have a suitable level of understanding of the performance and parameters of those systems, as articulated in the principle of understanding.
Published by The Ministry of Defence (MOD), United Kingdom in Ethical Principles for AI in Defence, Jun 15, 2022