Human Rights Watch says a nonbinding U.N. autonomous-weapons draft finalized Sept. 5 cut language on predictability, reliability and design standards and narrowed coverage to humanitarian law; the Post says U.S. and Russian delegations pushed the changes.
The Washington Post, citing people familiar with the talks, reported that the delegations pushed the edits in a closed-door session during roughly 15 hours of last-minute revisions. It also reported removal of a provision requiring human review of AI-generated targets before a strike.
Human Rights Watch says a record 76 countries back turning the nonbinding text into a binding treaty. Diplomats return to Geneva in November to decide whether to begin formal negotiations. Separately, a June memorandum from President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to update within 90 days the policy requiring human judgment before autonomous weapons fire; as of Saturday, the revision was overdue and had not been publicly issued.
