Note: Single-source report; awaiting corroboration.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have renewed calls for regulations on lethal autonomous weapons that operate without meaningful human control. They emphasize concerns over two types of autonomous weapons: those with unpredictable actions and those that can directly target humans. Guterres stated that allowing machines to autonomously target humans is dangerously close to crossing a moral red line.
International humanitarian law prohibits targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, but accurately identifying non-combatants in conflict zones remains challenging. The appeal highlighted that machines making life-and-death decisions may not reliably distinguish between combatants and civilians under changing conditions.
In Geneva, Mélanie Régimbal, head of disarmament affairs at the UN office, reiterated that autonomous systems capable of selecting and engaging targets without human judgement are politically unacceptable and morally repugnant, and should be prohibited under international law. Laurent Gisel of the ICRC noted that conflict conditions change rapidly, civilians can enter operational areas, and combatants may surrender or be wounded, all requiring protection. Autonomous weapons may encounter scenarios their designers did not foresee.
The UN and ICRC stressed that these autonomous systems are not just future concerns—they are already being developed and deployed at an accelerated pace, driven by advances in AI. Scientists and engineers have also raised concerns about the risks these systems pose.
The joint appeal calls on states to move beyond debate and begin negotiations on a legally binding instrument to clearly prohibit or restrict the use of lethal autonomous weapons, emphasizing the need for political courage and decisive action.