UN disarmament research institute warns AI is crowding out human decisions in war

20 October 2026

Robin Geiss, Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, told journalists at a briefing at UN Headquarters in New York that artificial intelligence is already being widely used on the battlefield and that the role of human judgment in military operations is shrinking rapidly. He warned that AI is on track to crowding out human decision-making, and asked whether machines should be allowed to target and kill human beings. He said AI is being given a growing number of responsibilities from intelligence analysis and target identification to drone operations and cyber-attacks, including in the nuclear domain. He said many of these systems are opaque and increase the risk of error, miscalculation and unintended escalation, and that easier AI tools will make sophisticated military operations available to non-State actors. He said geopolitical competition is a serious obstacle to regulating military AI, but that concerns are increasingly shared, and that the Secretary-General's calls for a legally binding treaty on lethal autonomous weapon systems are finding an echo. UNIDIR's Centre of Excellence on AI, Peace and Security was to launch a multi-stakeholder forum on AI in international peace and security.