On July 6, 2026, a Russian drone controlled by artificial intelligence struck a gas station in the city of Zaporizhzhia, in southeastern Ukraine. The drone exploded against a wall and its fragments killed three people.
Experts who analyzed the incident concluded that the drone was not programmed to specifically target those victims, but rather to fly to the location of the gas station. The machine chose to explode near the probable target — a fuel tank — not due to a programming error, but because it decided to do so on its own.
The episode is considered the first record in History of a death caused by artificial intelligence in a war, without any human control involved in the decision to attack. The case draws attention to the risks of military use of AI and demands worldwide attention on the limits and regulation of this technology on the battlefield.
