By John Johnson
Publication Date: 2026-08-24 23:49:00
A small drone’s lethal flight in Ukraine is being cited as a first: a weapon that appeared to pick its own target using artificial intelligence. Ukrainian investigators say the drone, which killed 19-year-old student Tetiana Bubynets and two others at a gas station in Zaporizhzhia on July 6, lacked antennas, suggesting it was not being steered in real time, reports the New York Times. Instead, it carried a commercially available Nvidia mini-computer.
Ukrainian officials interviewed by the Times say the drone was likely sent toward a specific gas station but then autonomously homed in on what it had been trained to recognize—such as propane tanks. If confirmed, it would mark the first documented civilian deaths caused by a fully autonomous AI system, notes Gizmodo. “This is a risk for the whole world,” Col. Serhiy Minaiev, commander of air defenses in Zaporizhzhia, tells the Times. “In a few years, we will be living in a Terminator movie. It’s no joke….