Abstract:The extensive integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into military decision support systems, particularly for battlefield targeting tasks, has markedly improved operational lethality and precision in target identification tasks, yet it has sparked significant controversy due to collateral civilian casualties. While AI holds humanitarian promise for enhancing strike accuracy and minimizing unintended damage, its inherent uncertainty, unexplainability, and unpredictability present profound challenges to effective compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL). Modern AI-driven decision support systems deployed in combat operations have transcended their conventional “advisory” function, effectively supplanting critical human judgment in decision-making processes. This shift toward advanced autonomy, compounded by AI's intrinsic “semantic disconnect” and risks of algorithmic bias, heightens humanitarian concerns: the semantic disconnect can lead to misinterpretations of operational context, while algorithmic bias risks disproportionate or discriminatory targeting of specific groups or entities, both undermining IHL compliance. To mitigate these critical risks, it is imperative to maintain meaningful human oversight, ensuring robust human involvement, supervision, and ultimate authority in decisive operational loops. Furthermore, a dual approach is required: technically, efforts must focus on enhancing AI systems' explainability and predictability, developing and implementing robust bias detection and mitigation algorithms, and instituting comprehensive testing and validation protocols throughout the system lifecycle. Legally, nations should conduct rigorous domestic legal reviews of AI-enabled military decision systems and establish international accountability frameworks to ensure their deployment and use align strictly with IHL mandates.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Military Decision-Making, AI Decision Support Systems, International Humanitarian Law, Algorithmic Bias

 

Author: Zhang Weihua, assistant research fellow, CASS Institute of International Law;

Source: 6 (2025) Chinese Review of International Law.