Trump pushes faster military AI while insisting human control over nuclear weapons

President Donald Trump signed a national-security memorandum on June 5 that tells the Pentagon to quicken the integration of artificial-intelligence tools while preserving the constitutional chain of command. The order gives the defense department three months to update its autonomy policy, making certain that AI components cannot act without a distinct, time-limited human approval token. This technical layer would block any protected action if the token is missing, expired, or unverifiable, and would generate immutable records of each attempted transition.

The directive builds on the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review and FY2025 defense legislation, both of which require a human to authorize any presidential nuclear-employment decision. Analysts argue that the measure aims to prevent AI from compressing decision timelines to the point where human checkpoints become merely symbolic. The memo also calls for rigorous testing and auditing to prove that AI-enabled functions cannot bypass human control.