Naturally, the board already has some advice. It recommends that the Pentagon gather more intelligence on other nations' AI capabilities, and develop "counter-autonomy" solutions. The military could deceive or overwhelm autonomous war machines, for example. Also, the writers suggest that the US pour many more resources into developing and testing learning AI, such as weapons that adapt to battlefield conditions.

There's no guarantee that officials will heed the advice, or even that it's absolutely necessary. However, there are good reasons why the US might not want to sit on its hands. The board cautions that rivals (such as China and Russia) have "less restrictive" policies on lethal autonomous hardware, such as killer robots. That doesn't mean that the US should follow their lead, but it may need technology that can thwart deadly AI systems before it's too late.