The world banned landmines and cluster munitions. Can it stop killer AI before it is too late?

The world banned landmines and cluster munitions. Can it stop killer AI before it is too late? Gergana Krasteva on Wed, 09/02/2026 - 08:13 Campaigners race to rein in systems ‘designed to kill’, as autonomous weapons lower the threshold for war and increase civilian harm A plume of smoke rises after a strike on the Iranian capital Tehran, on 3 March 2026 (Atta Kenare/AFP) Off Throughout the history of war, the machinery of killing has always left room for a human to intervene. A soldier could see the person in front of them and choose to maim rather than kill; a pilot could identify the target, question the intelligence and decide not to strike. Technology has been steadily changing that. Autonomous weapons systems now threaten to remove any meaningful human control over the use of force in conflict. AI-assisted targeting was first deployed by Israel in its genocidal war on Gaza and then in Iran, with strikes happening at unprecedented speed - over 1,000 hits in the first 24 hours of the US-Israeli war, suggesting the use of automated systems. For more than 13 years, the global coalition Stop Killer Robots has been fighting to prevent that future, pushing governments towards a ban