Over 200 groups demand halt to AI in military kill chains

Human Rights Groups Demand Halt to AI Use in Military Kill Chains

Access Now, Amnesty International, and more than 200 civil society organizations issued a joint statement on June 14 calling on governments and technology companies to immediately halt the use of artificial intelligence systems in military targeting, warning that AI-accelerated warfare is “rubber-stamping killing at unprecedented speed and scale.”accessnow

A Coalition Raises the Alarm

The joint statement, published as AI-driven military operations continue in multiple conflict zones, demands that tech companies and states “cease the provision and use of technologies which undermine adherence to international law in armed conflicts.” The coalition argues that AI tools used for target generation and prioritization are pushing military actors into a form of warfare that undermines foundational principles of international humanitarian law.accessnow

“AI has become the new gunpowder, and tech companies are the new arms dealers,” said Marwa Fatafta, MENA Policy and Advocacy Director at Access Now. “From Gaza to Lebanon to Iran, the lived reality of violence unleashed through AI-driven kill chains shatters any claim that these systems can be deployed responsibly.”accessnow

The call comes as reporting has documented how Palantir Maven Smart System, integrated with Anthropic’s Claude AI, was used during the U.S.-led Operation Epic Fury against Iran to identify and prioritize over 1,000 targets within 24 hours, according to The Washington Post. Defense One reported that Claude functions as a “reasoning engine” within the system, helping synchronize modules and simplify tasks for human operators.washingtonpost

Legal Safeguards Lag Behind Deployment

Human Rights Watch, a co-founder of the Stop Killer Robots campaign, has repeatedly warned that AI adoption in warfare is outpacing legal frameworks. In March, HRW criticized the Pentagon’s decision to reject Anthropic’s ethical red lines for military AI use as “a clear sign that the Pentagon is unlikely to uphold meaningful safeguards.”hrw

The Trump administration moved in the opposite direction on June 4, signing a National Security Presidential Memorandum directing accelerated deployment of AI for “warfighters and intelligence professionals.” The order tasks Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with revising directives on weapons system autonomy within 90 days.abc

Meanwhile, Nature published an editorial in March arguing that “the use of AI in warfare should not be permitted until there are specific rules to govern that use,” noting that no international laws explicitly mention AI in armed conflict.nature

Demands for Transparency and Moratorium

The civil society coalition is calling on states to end the use of AI tools in military targeting, provide transparency on how AI is currently deployed in hostilities, and ensure companies take steps so that AI systems they provide “do not cause or contribute to violations of international law.”accessnow

Daniel Leufer, Emerging Technologies Policy Lead at Access Now, said: “AI companies cannot proclaim to be committed to benefitting all of humanity while simultaneously raking in the profits from lucrative military contracts. We need the hollow ethical posturing to stop and real accountability to begin.”accessnow