Slotkin introduces bill limiting Pentagon AI use

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) introduced the AI Guardrails Act on Tuesday, legislation designed to impose restrictions on how the Pentagon develops and deploys artificial intelligence, particularly in weapons systems. The bill would prohibit the Department of Defense from using autonomous weapons to make lethal decisions without human authorization and would establish similar safeguards for nuclear weapons systems. Slotkin's measure reflects growing congressional concern about the military's accelerating use of AI technology without clear ethical or operational limits. The proposal addresses one of defense policy's most contentious questions: whether machines should be permitted to select and engage targets independently. The bill's fate depends on broader Republican and Democratic appetite for regulating military AI development amid ongoing great-power competition with China and Russia.