VP Vance warns new USAFA grads humans must control AI weapons

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- More than 900 newly commissioned officers heard a direct warning during Thursday’s U.S Air Force Academy graduation — artificial intelligence must never be the one deciding who lives and who dies.

Vice President JD Vance delivered the 68th commencement address at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He told the new lieutenants that AI is already changing how wars are fought. But he drew a clear line.

"AI will inevitably change warfare, and, of course, as you've learned over the last four years, it already has," Vance said. "But one of the things that makes Americans unique, that makes you as war fighters unique, is that we wage war justly."

Vance went further, aligning himself with the Pope on the moral stakes of military technology.

"And if the warfare of the future is to live up to the moral values of our ancestors, decisions over life and death must be made by humans and not machines," Vance said. "You are the masters of warfare. And both your minds, but also your hearts, are the opposite of artificial."

Vance, a Marine Corps veteran, also praised the Air Force Academy as one of the best training grounds in the world for teaching cadets how to use AI as a tool on the battlefield. His message was stern — use it, but never rely on it for moral decisions.

"Use technology to make you better but never submit to it," he said.

931 cadets were commissioned Thursday. Thirteen of them are international students. Most will serve in the Air Force and Space Force. Ten will be cross-commissioned into the Army, Navy, and Marines.

One of the new graduates said the academy prepared them as well as it could for what comes next.

"I think it's been so carefully curated. We're as prepared as much as we can be," the graduate said.

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