US, Russia Strip Human Review From AI Weapons Pact

The United States and Russia forced the removal of key safeguards from a proposed United Nations framework on lethal autonomous weapons, including a requirement that humans review targets selected by AI, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.
The changes came during Geneva negotiations earlier this month under the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, the UN’s most advanced attempt to set international rules for weapons that can identify and engage targets with limited human intervention.
US and Russian diplomats spent nearly 15 hours revising the document on the final day, according to the Post, which cited three people familiar with the closed-door talks. The two delegations removed language requiring autonomous weapons to operate in a “predictable” and “reliable” manner, deleted a provision on ethical considerations, and narrowed the legal framework from international law generally to international humanitarian law.
The talks went behind closed doors after UN cameras were switched off and civil society observers were asked to leave. Both governments declined to comment.
Human Rights Watch said Russia and the United States had weakened provisions widely supported by other governments, warning the changes could lead to more civilian casualties and harder accountability for errors.
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