WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance told graduates of the Air Force Academy they must “never submit” to artificial intelligence while making life-and-death decisions — and that decisions on killing “must be made by humans.”

“The thing I worry about the most with AI is how it will change warfare,” Vance said in his address Thursday to the graduates.

Vance applauded the concerns of American-born Pope Leo XIV, who released a formal clerical assessment this week cautioning about the rapid advance of AI.

“Pope Leo XIV, in a recent document, encouraged us as human beings not to outsource the most important world decisions to digital technology, and I want to endorse that sentiment,” said Vance, who is Catholic.

“AI will inevitably change warfare … It already has. But one of the things that make Americans unique … is we wage war justly,” the Marine Corps veteran said.

“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 added.

“I ask that you be jealous and selfish about your role as a decision maker in warfare. Use technology to make you better, but never submit to it … Your minds but also your hearts are the opposite of artificial.”

AI policy has been a hotly debated matter over the past year.

The Department of War last year demanded unrestricted access to Anthropic’s Claude AI models — drawing pushback from the company, which expressed concern about the technology being used for the autonomous killing of targets or mass surveillance.

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That standoff snowballed into a legal struggle.

President Trump, meanwhile, shelved an about-to-be-signed executive order this month that would have created a voluntary oversight mechanism for AI companies to have their products reviewed by the federal government to protect against unintended consequences such as cyberattacks.

How strictly to apply federal oversight has divided the Trump administration into different schools of thought, with some officials favoring a more free-market approach.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is among the supporters of enhanced oversight, particularly to ensure advanced AI doesn’t get exported to adversaries such as China, Politico reported.