A man is in a supermarket, choosing plums from a tray of fruit. Suddenly, the blue bag on his shoulder is shredded by the flash of an explosion. The next moment the man is thrown to the ground, where he lies crying out in pain.

This scene took place in Lebanon on Tuesday afternoon. Thousands of people were injured and 12 people killed after pagersA small piece electronic device that was carried or worn, pre-mobile phones, which vibrated or made a noise to tell you that someone wanted you to phone them. exploded in pockets, bags and hands.¹

Less than 24 hours later, exploding walkie-talkiesPortable radios for sending and receiving messages. injured hundreds of people, killing at least 20, in the same Middle Eastern country. Most commentators think that Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, was responsible for tampering with the technology on both types of devices.

Israel has not commented on the attacks but the Israeli defence minister said his country was opening a "new phase in the war", with the "centre of gravity" shifting towards the north - where Israel borders Lebanon.²

The devices belonged to members of Hezbollah, a political party and paramilitary group in Lebanon. Hezbollah has a long-standing conflict with Israel, and is called a terrorist organisation by many countries. It recently replaced members' mobile phones with old-fashioned pagers to increase security, saying that phones are too easily tracked.

It is not the first time Mossad has used technology in unexpected ways. In 2020, Israeli spies shot a nuclear scientist in Iran using a robot machine gun. They also designed a computer virus to shut down the Iranian nuclear weapons programme in 2010.³

In Ukraine, technology is also changing the nature of war. Drones are becoming a vital part of the conflict with Russia.⁴ And weapon systems are increasingly relying on AI to find, track and target enemy fighters.

New technology has always altered the way humans fight. But many worry about its role in contemporary conflicts. If most of the killing is being performed by computers, warfare could become even more inhumanLacking human qualities of compassion or mercy..

Soon, AI technology will decide whether to attack a target. This will replace human responsibility with a machine that has no moral concerns. But, if a computer performs a war crime, who is to blame?

At the same time, this technology lacks precision. AI target recognition struggles to tell the difference between a child with a toy gun and a short soldier with a real gun. Respected academic Noam Lubell argues that such algorithms "cannot be used lawfully". ⁵

Those in favour of AI believe that it will increase safety for soldiers and improve decision-making.⁶ For example, robots can better navigate dangerous terrain, and computers can perform tasks better than tired or injured humans.

Computers are also much better at identifying known targets, and this could actually make warfare less violent as fewer non-combatants are wounded or killed.

Either way, AI technology is already being used by soldiers, and by intelligence agencies tracking data and creating disinformation. It is too late for the international community to ban the technology; instead, a legal framework is needed to create clear boundaries.

As the attacks in Lebanon show, armies will keep searching for innovative ways to use weaponry. At the same time, new technologies will continue to test existing legal systems. When it comes to war, surprise can mean victory, which makes the future almost impossible to predict.

Should high-tech weapons be banned?

Yes: AI technology replaces human responsibility with a machine. This risks making war even more violent, because computers lack the moral judgement of people.

No: New technologies can actually make war much safer. They will reduce the amount of human error and undertake the most dangerous battlefield tasks.

Or... AI is already being used in modern warfare, from drones to disinformation. A legal framework might limit that use, but armies will keep looking for novel ways to outwit their opponents.