Asia-Pacific Journal Series – Dignitary Design: Embedding Human Dignity into Military AI

Editors’ note: This post appears as part of a series highlighting articles in a recent volume of the Asia-Pacific Journal of International Law, on which presentations were made at a workshop hosted by National University of Singapore’s Centre for International Law. Introductory post by Samuel White, Danielle Yeow, and Jonathan Kwik can be found here.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the way military operations are planned and conducted. Systems capable of processing enormous quantities of data now assist commanders in identifying potential targets, predicting civilian presence, assessing collateral damage, and recommending operational courses of action.

Although these technologies remain, in formal legal terms, decision-support tools rather than autonomous legal actors, they increasingly shape the informational environment within which military decisions are made. As a result, the central challenge confronting international humanitarian law (IHL) is no longer confined to regulating autonomous weapons. My article engages with the broader question of how IHL should respond when human judgment itself is progressively mediated by algorithmic systems.

From Legal Accountability to Design Principle

Contemporary debates on military AI have largely focused on whether IHL is adequate to regulate emerging technologies, how meaningful human control should be preserved, and who should bear responsibility when AI-assisted operations produce unlawful outcomes. While these discussions have generated important insights, they share a common premise: they treat AI as a technological reality to be regulated after it has already been developed, rather than asking what normative values should shape its design from the outset.

This is the idea underlying what I describe as dignitary design. The concept rests upon a straightforward proposition: respect for human dignity should not function merely as a standard against which military operations are evaluated after harm has occurred. Rather, dignity should become a guiding principle in the design and governance of military AI itself. Instead of viewing human dignity exclusively as a legal value protected through judicial review, accountability mechanisms, or reparations, dignitary design understands it as an ex ante constraint that shapes technological development before operational decisions are ever made. If military AI increasingly structures battlefield decision-making, IHL cannot remain concerned solely with the legality of outcomes; it must also engage with the architecture through which those outcomes are produced.

Human Dignity in IHL

This proposal builds upon the normative foundations of IHL itself. The principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution all presuppose that human beings possess an intrinsic value that cannot simply be reduced to strategic utility. Likewise, the Martens Clause reminds us that even where treaty law is silent, military operations remain governed by the principles of humanity and the dictates of public conscience.

Together, these rules reflect a legal order whose legitimacy depends not merely upon regulating violence efficiently but upon preserving the humanity of those affected by armed conflict.

Why AI Changes the Equation

Military AI challenges this normative structure in subtle but important ways. Contemporary systems do not simply automate mechanical tasks. Increasingly, they classify objects, prioritize targets, generate predictions, and recommend operational responses. In doing so, they influence the evaluative processes that traditionally depended upon human judgment. The concern is therefore not that machines become moral agents; they plainly do not. Nor is it that human operators disappear from the decision-making process. Rather, the concern is that algorithmic systems may gradually redefine how military judgment is exercised, encouraging reliance upon computational outputs that appear objective while concealing uncertainty, embedded assumptions, or systematic biases.

The Practical Implications of Dignitary Design

Seen from this perspective, dignitary design is not a technological innovation but a jurisprudential framework. It seeks to ensure that humanitarian values remain embedded within the institutions, procedures, and technologies through which military decisions are increasingly mediated. It therefore complements rather than replaces existing legal concepts. Meaningful human control remains indispensable, but it is principally concerned with preserving human participation in operational decisions. Accountability remains essential, but it primarily addresses responsibility after harmful consequences have occurred. Dignitary design addresses a different question altogether: what characteristics should military AI possess if it is to deserve human trust and remain compatible with the humanitarian commitments that underlie IHL?

Several practical implications follow from this conception of dignitary design. First, military AI systems should be sufficiently explainable to permit meaningful legal and operational scrutiny, enabling commanders and legal advisers to understand, evaluate, and, where necessary, challenge the reasoning underlying algorithmic recommendations rather than treating them as authoritative but opaque outputs. Second, such systems should communicate uncertainty explicitly instead of projecting unwarranted confidence, allowing decision-makers to appreciate the inherent limits of algorithmic prediction and to exercise independent judgment accordingly. Third, they should preserve genuine opportunities for human deliberation, ensuring that operators remain capable not merely of approving algorithmic recommendations but of questioning, modifying, or rejecting them in light of the broader humanitarian considerations that no computational model can fully capture. Finally, military AI should be subject to continuous legal, technical, and operational review throughout its lifecycle. Because adaptive systems evolve through software updates, retraining, and changing operational environments, preserving their compatibility with IHL requires ongoing governance rather than a single certification at the point of deployment.

Keeping Humans Responsible

None of these proposals requires attributing moral agency to machines. On the contrary, dignitary design begins from the recognition that AI is incapable of understanding dignity, exercising conscience, or assuming legal responsibility. Precisely because machines cannot internalise humanitarian values, the responsibility for embedding those values must remain with the States, institutions, engineers, military lawyers, commanders, and policymakers who develop and employ these systems. Human dignity therefore becomes not a property of technology itself but a normative constraint governing the human choices that shape technological development.

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Dr Sergey Sayapin is a Professor of Law at KIMEP University (Almaty, Kazakhstan) and Distinguished Visiting Global Scholar at the NUS Centre for International Law (2025).

The views expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the United States Military Academy, Department of the Army, or Department of Defense. 

Articles of War is a forum for professionals to share opinions and cultivate ideas. Articles of War does not screen articles to fit a particular editorial agenda, nor endorse or advocate material that is published. Authorship does not indicate affiliation with Articles of War, the Lieber Institute, or the United States Military Academy West Point.

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