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Vox ·Future-gazing

Can Machines Be War Criminals?

by Kylie Jones

Published 2026-10-25 06:00:00-04:00

If an algorithm targets a school, who stands trial for the war crime?

0:00 / 16:06 · Narrator Sulafat

Context

When a human soldier commits a war crime, military law knows exactly who to prosecute. But as this Vox interview published on 25 October 2026 points out, artificial intelligence breaks that chain of accountability. If an automated targeting system misidentifies a civilian building, the military blames the software while the tech company blames the military's data. The conversation steps back to ask a question the international justice system is entirely unprepared for: when a machine violates the rules of war, who actually goes to trial?

Show notes

An interview with a Stanford law professor on how autonomous weapons complicate the rules of armed conflict. The conversation examines who holds criminal responsibility when a machine selects an illegal target, contrasting individual accountability with state liability. It also considers whether the private tech companies building these systems could legally be classified as combatants.

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