Toward a global convention on AI warfare
Abstract
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.
Keywords: AI warfare, Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, lethal autonomous weapons systems
DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20261902.10462
Citation: Okaiyeto S A, Zhang W P, Zhang J S, Wang J, Xiao H W. Toward a global convention on AI warfare. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2026; 19(2): 320–322.
References
[1] Russell S. AI weapons: Russia’s war in Ukraine shows why the world must enact a ban. Nature, 2023; 614: 620–623.
[2] Stop the use of AI in war until laws can be agreed. Nature, 2026; 651: 282. doi: 10.1038/d41586-026-00762-y.
[3] United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs. Group of governmental experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, 2025 and 2026 sessions. Available: https://meetings.unoda.org/. Accessed on [2026-03-15].
[4] Hern A. Stephen hawking warns that artificial intelligence could end mankind. The Guardian, 2014-12-02. Reporting BBC interview. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/. Accessed on [2026-03-15].
[5] Future of Life Institute. Autonomous weapons open letter: AI & robotics researchers. Available: https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/open-letter-autonomous-weapons-ai-robotics/. Accessed on [2026-03-15].
[6] Hinton G. Banquet speech. Nobel Prize Outreach AB, 2024-12-10. Available: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2024/hinton/speech/. Accessed on [2026-03-15].
[7] Wodecki B. Geoffrey Hinton warns autonomous weapons make war easier to start. AI Business, 2025. Available: https://aibusiness.com/. Accessed on [2026-03-15].
[8] Future of Life Institute. An open letter to the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Available: https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/autonomous-weapons-open-letter-2017/. Accessed on [2026-03-15].
[9] Jones N. How AI is shaping the war in Iran—and what’s next for future conflicts. Nature, 2026; 651: 278–279.
[10] Cronin A K. Designing lethal technologies. Science, 2022; 378(6625): 1178.
[11] Bai J W, Mujumdar A S, Xiao H W. Ethical and strategic challenges of AI weapons: A call for global action. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2024; 17(5): 293–294.
[12] Davidovic J. Rethinking human roles in AI warfare. Nature Machine Intelligence, 2025; 7: 1593–1595.
[13] International Committee of the Red Cross. Autonomous weapons: The ICRC recommends adopting new rules. ICRC Statement, 2021-08-03. Available: https://www.icrc.org/. Accessed on [2026-03-15].
[14] International Committee of the Red Cross. Autonomous weapon systems and international humanitarian law: selected issues and the way forward. ICRC Position Paper, 2026-03-03. Available: https://www.icrc.org/. Accessed on [2026-03-15].
[15] Article 36, PAX, and the International Humanitarian Law Centre. Meaningful human control: Key elements in emerging debate. Available: https://www.article36.org/. Accessed on [2026-03-15].
[16] Puscas I. Human–machine interfaces in autonomous weapon systems. Geneva: United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, 2021.
[17] United Nations. Lethal autonomous weapons systems. Report of the Secretary-General. A/79/88, 2024-07-01.
[18] Human Rights Watch. A hazard to human rights: Autonomous weapons systems and digital decision-making. New York: Human Rights Watch, 2025-04-28.
[19] Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. 1968. Available: https://www.un.org/disarmament/wmd/nuclear/npt/. Accessed on [2026-03-15].
[20] Convention on the Prohibition of Biological Weapons. 1972. Available: https://disarmament.unoda.org/biological-weapons/. Accessed on [2026-03-15].
[21] Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. 1993. Available: https://www.opcw.org/chemical-weapons-convention. Accessed on [2026-03-15].
[22] International Committee of the Red Cross. Legal review of weapons. Available: https://www.icrc.org/en/law-and-policy/legal-review-weapons. Accessed on [2026-03-15].
[23] Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China. Global AI Governance Initiative. 2023-10-20. Available: https://www.mfa.gov.cn/eng/zy/gb/202405/t20240531_11367503.html. Accessed on [2026-03-15].
[24] Position Paper of the People’s Republic of China on Regulating Military Applications of Artificial Intelligence. CCW-CONF. VI-WP. 2, 2021.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
IJABE is an international peer reviewed, open access journal, adopting Creative Commons Copyright Notices as follows.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).