Century Report arc
Autonomous Weapons & Human Control
As militaries delegate target selection and strikes to AI, governments contest whether meaningful human review remains a binding condition of lethal force, while battlefield deployment, arms control, and accountability move at different speeds.
- Status
- Active
- Developments
- 1
- Last 30 days
- 0
- Last covered
Current synthesis
Where it stands
Autonomous lethal action has been documented in Ukraine (08-25), and a NATO-backed test demonstrated independent target selection and striking (09-20). The draft of the first UN treaty on lethal autonomous weapons now lacks a human target-review requirement after US and Russian edits (09-28). Governments reconvene in November; the live question is whether broad support for human control can become a binding rule despite those powers' opposition.
Complete record
Development timeline
1 qualifying development, newest first
September 2026
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[DD+POD] US and Russian delegations removed human target-review, predictability, and ethics safeguards from a draft UN treaty on lethal autonomous weapons; governments reconvene in November.