Trump says humans control the bomb. The code doesn’t know that yet

Published August 14, 2026 7:00am ET



President Donald Trump has made a clear promise on military artificial intelligence: move faster without breaking the constitutional chain of command.

His June 5 national-security AI memorandum orders the Pentagon to accelerate adoption of advanced systems while making them reliable, steerable, controllable, and accountable. It also gives the Pentagon 90 days to update its directive on autonomy in weapon systems so AI respects operational authorities and the chain of command.

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