Key Takeaways:
Vice President JD Vance told graduating Air Force cadets that artificial intelligence must never be allowed to make life-and-death decisions on the battlefield, wading into a debate that has split the Trump administration as the Pentagon accelerates its use of AI in warfare.
"Decisions over life and death must be made by humans and not machines," Vance said Thursday at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, addressing about 900 cadets. "Use technology to make you better, but never submit to it. You are the masters of warfare, and both your minds but also your hearts are the opposite of artificial."
The speech marked a notable shift in tone for Vance, a former venture capitalist who has long championed AI deregulation and last year chided European allies for their "heavy-handed" approach at the Paris AI Action Summit. His remarks echoed Pope Leo XIV's encyclical on AI released this week, which warned against outsourcing moral decisions to digital technology — a document Vance praised in an NBC News interview earlier this week.
The comments come as the Pentagon's use of AI in combat faces growing scrutiny. The Maven Smart System, powered by Anthropic's Claude AI tool, was deployed during the opening hours of the Iran war, suggesting hundreds of targets and issuing location coordinates. An investigation is ongoing into a strike on a school in Iran that killed at least 175 people, many of them schoolgirls, after the system reportedly flagged the site — adjacent to an Iranian military facility — as a legitimate target.
The incident has fueled internal White House divisions over AI policy. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has pushed for closer oversight of powerful AI systems, while former AI czar David Sacks advocated a lighter-touch approach. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has called AI development "a race" and argued that "speed wins," last month directed broad implementation of AI across the military.
President Donald Trump last week scrapped a planned executive order that would have created a voluntary government testing mechanism for the latest AI models, after last-minute lobbying from tech executives concerned about restrictions. The administration is still crafting its AI policy framework amid competing factions.
Vance, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, acknowledged the unease Americans feel about AI's impact on jobs and social interaction but said his greatest concern was its effect on warfare. "If the warfare of the future is to live up to the moral values of our ancestors," he said, "decisions over life and death must be made by humans and not machines."
The remarks could boost defense-tech contractors such as Palantir Technologies Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp. and RTX Corp., which are positioned to benefit from increased government focus on AI-enabled military systems. The Pentagon's AI budget has grown as the US races to maintain technological superiority over China in autonomous warfare capabilities.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
