At the request of the US Department of Defense (DoD), the Defense Innovation Board (an independent advisory committee) has elaborated a set of artificial intelligence (AI) ethics principles to guide the DoD’s AI-related work. The principles state that: (a) Humans should remain responsible for the development, deployment, use, and outcomes of DoD AI systems. (b) The DoD is advised to take measures to avoid unintended bias in the development and deployment of AI systems. (c) The AI systems employed by the DoD should be traceable, reliable, and governable. The Defense Innovation Board has also noted that the development and deployment of AI by the DoD is also covered by the department’s ethics framework, and that the proposed new principles are meant to address ‘only new ethical AI questions that DoD’s existing ethics framework may not cover’.