Artificial Urgency: Reflecting on AI Hype at the 2026 REAIM Summit

(Zena Assaad – Just Security) The third Summit on Responsible AI in the Military Domain (REAIM) took place from February 4 to 5 in A Coruña, Spain, bringing together States, non-governmental actors, academics, and tech industry representatives. This year’s Summit aimed to build upon previous gatherings, which focused on establishing a common understanding of the challenges and opportunities associated with military AI governance, by moving towards “concrete, practical, and realistic steps to translate previously agreed principles into effective and tangible measures.”. This action-oriented objective of the third Summit was complimented by an opening plenary panel which focused on technical understandings and considerations around AI—a perspective which is concerningly diluted in the legal and policy discourse of military AI. This set the tone for ongoing discussions on the tension between theoretical framings of AI and technical realities—a tension which surfaces many misconceptions and miscalibrated measures for procuring and implementing this technology – Artificial Urgency: Reflecting on AI Hype at the 2026 REAIM Summit