> the use of AI on the battlefield is also raising ethical concerns that machines could be left to decide the fate of combatants and civilians

This bears echos of the handwringing of nukes. Sure, we can all recognize the implicit moral qualms that AI and drones will bring. We will see news flashes of civilians being killed by drones, politicians parroting something about "poor safeguards for 'edge cases'", and NGO's yelling into the void about humanitarian issues under unjust regimes AI drones. We will wash our hands by way of virtue signaling that "we knew this would happen" or "I vote to stop AI drones" etc...

But at the end of the day, nations will utilize whatever they can to enforce their leader's aims. Drones are not the defunct landmines the UN "outlawed" nor the Nuclear weapons we merely banned from nations too weak to produce. They are cheap, and ever more accessible. Drones mark a fundamental change in warfare, not some temporary hiccup before return to norms. Ethical concerns will sadly remain just that, concerns.