1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Back a binding international ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems — machines that select and kill human targets with no human in the loop. This is no longer hypothetical. A Ukrainian defence executive recently confirmed that AI-controlled "Terminator" drones killed soldiers near Bakhmut with zero human oversight. The operator's own description was chilling: "We just launch it and we know everything will be dead." That is not warfare with accountability. That is automated killing. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has already called for a ban, citing violations of international humanitarian law. Oxford ethicist Mariarosaria Taddeo calls fully autonomous killing "horrendous" because it strips both human dignity and human responsibility from the act of taking a life. Even military analysts note that keeping humans in the loop is currently more effective on the battlefield — so there is no compelling strategic argument for removing that check. The line between a weapon and a murder machine is human judgment. Once we automate that decision, we cannot take it back.