Toward a global convention on AI warfare

The military application of artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing far faster than global governance, with AI-assisted targeting, reconnaissance, and autonomous systems already deployed in active conflicts such as those in Ukraine and the Middle East. It not only restructures the tempo and scale of warfare but also brings profound ethical and operational risks, including algorithmic opacity and the excessive dilution of meaningful human control over lethal military decisions. Existing international humanitarian law and voluntary corporate commitments are insufficient to address these challenges. Drawing on lessons from historical arms control regimes, this article calls for an urgent global binding convention to regulate AI warfare, with scientists and international mechanisms like the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) playing key roles in promoting rule-making.