Mark Beall, head of strategy and policy at the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), said DoD should consider allies as it develops AI for military applications, FedScoop reported Friday.

“We know when the U.S. goes into combat operations … rarely do we do [it] alone,” Beall told the publication in an interview. “At the highest level, JAIC is very much interested in how it is we upgrade our alliances for the digital era.”

Work on international AI collaboration is in the initial phase and Stephanie Culberson, director of international AI policy at JAIC, said DoD’s conversations with NATO allies are focused on regulations, principles and ethics. Culberson said she believes there will be a stronger need for technical working groups as the Pentagon’s AI ecosystem matures.

JAIC is working on three basic principles of democracy for AI and those are efforts to ensure data interoperability, develop norms around democratic values and establish pipelines to facilitate secure technology transfer.