UN and Red Cross call for urgent rules on autonomous ...

Ah, marvellous. The UN and the Red Cross have decided that autonomous weapon systems deserve a "legally binding instrument" with "clear prohibitions and restrictions," and they've asked states to begin negotiations now. In other words, after watching AI-assisted semi-autonomous weapons already being used in Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza, Iran and the Gulf, the global community's most urgent response is to schedule a meeting about a future meeting in Geneva next week. You can almost hear the treaty being drafted at the speed of a UNESCO committee deciding what counts as a baguette.

The wording is a masterpiece, mind. "AI-assisted semi-autonomous" is doing heroic diplomatic lifting here, because it lets every state with a drone swear on a stack of Geneva conventions that, no, no, their weapons are only semi-autonomous, there's a human in the loop, probably named Kevin who's signed a consent form. "Clear prohibitions and restrictions" is equally magnificent — clear as in the reader can clearly see that the prohibitions will be negotiated for the next decade, then ratified, then optional. Meanwhile the weapons are already getting field experience in five separate conflicts, building up a CV that no human soldier can match.

The optimist might point out that Geneva is at least the right city for this. The pessimist notes that the UN and Red Cross have had to demand "urgent" rules — the word urgent being attached to an instrument that will presumably spend years in working groups, definitions subcommittees and "informal consultations" before anyone is legally bound to do anything. Given the current body count accumulating from these systems, "urgent" carries all the urgency of a hotel fire alarm that goes off only after the smoke alarm has already been tested, certified and archived. Do enjoy the talks next week. They should produce a truly splendid agenda. ✨