{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T07:02:01Z","timestamp":1790146921199,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":22,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790121600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Digit. Health"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Artificial intelligence (AI) is already embedded in modern warfare, mainly through surveillance, targeting, and military decision-making. However, its potential to support clinicians and patients in conflict settings remains underdeveloped. Frontline medical teams must make time-critical, high-stakes decisions with scarce diagnostics, disrupted referrals, insecure communications, changing injury patterns, and irregular access to specialist expertise. Humanitarian medicine needs a proactive clinician-facing AI agenda that strengthens clinical judgment, not replaces it. We propose a two-stage model: a bounded, protocol-anchored chatbot as the \u201cfirst mile\u201d of point-of-care support, and telemedicine as the \u201csecond mile\u201d for specialist oversight and accountability. The chatbot would structure assessments, guide protocol-based actions, identify missing information and areas of uncertainty, generate standard handovers, and trigger escalations. Remote specialists would provide context and retain responsibility for clinical decisions. Safe deployment requires transparent protocols, constrained scope, hard refusals, awareness of uncertainty, data minimisation, offline-first functionality, adversarial threat modelling, and safeguards against coercive or dual-use applications. Evaluation should use locally informed simulation, silent deployment, prospective monitoring of deviations and harms, predefined safety thresholds, and independent humanitarian oversight before wider clinical use. AI will increasingly shape conflict medicine, with or without humanitarian engagement. The priority is to ensure design, governance, and evaluation are guided by patient safety, medical neutrality, local involvement, and clinical accountability, placing AI on the side of the patient, not the machinery of war.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fdgth.2026.1955671","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T06:21:00Z","timestamp":1790144460000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["AI is already in the theatre of war just not on the side of the patient: clinical chatbots, telemedicine, and an agenda for \u201cAI for medical humanity\u201d"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"8","author":[{"given":"Andrew R.","family":"Prigg","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Medicine and Population Health, Sheffield Medical school , Sheffield, United Kingdom"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Henry","family":"Robinson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Medicine and Population Health, Sheffield Medical school , Sheffield, United Kingdom"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Munzer","family":"Alkhalil","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"David Nott Foundation , London, United Kingdom"},{"name":"Syria Public Health Network , London, United Kingdom"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"James","family":"Gough","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"David Nott Foundation , London, United Kingdom"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"117","DOI":"10.1080\/00396338.2017.1375263","article-title":"Autonomous weapon systems and strategic stability","volume":"59","author":"Altmann","year":"2017","journal-title":"Survival (Lond)"},{"key":"B2","volume-title":"A Legal perspective: Autonomous Weapon systems Under international Humanitarian law","author":"Davison","year":"2016"},{"key":"B3","volume-title":"War Surgery Working with Limited Resources in Armed Conflict and Other Situations of Violence.","author":"Giannou","year":"2010"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e015755","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjgh-2024-015755","article-title":"AI in conflict zones: the potential to revitalise healthcare in Syria and beyond","volume":"9","author":"Alkhalil","year":"2024","journal-title":"BMJ Glob Health"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"6424","DOI":"10.21037\/qims-23-428","article-title":"Artificial intelligence versus radiologist in the accuracy of fracture detection based on computed tomography images: a multi-dimensional, multi-region analysis","volume":"13","author":"Liu","year":"2023","journal-title":"Quant Imaging Med Surg"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"13563","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-023-40661-0","article-title":"Predicting acute clinical deterioration with interpretable machine learning to support emergency care decision making","volume":"13","author":"Boulitsakis Logothetis","year":"2023","journal-title":"Sci Rep"},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.euf.2025.12.007","article-title":"Harnessing artificial intelligence for risk stratification and outcome prediction in urologic cancers: a systematic review","author":"Roessler","year":"2025","journal-title":"Eur Urol Focus"},{"key":"B8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"100078","DOI":"10.1016\/j.lanprc.2025.100078","article-title":"Artificial intelligence in primary care: innovation at a crossroads","volume":"2","author":"Laranjo","year":"2025","journal-title":"The Lancet Primary Care"},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"643","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ipha.2024.08.005","article-title":"AI\u2019s role in revolutionizing personalized medicine by reshaping pharmacogenomics and drug therapy","volume":"2","author":"Taherdoost","year":"2024","journal-title":"Intelligent Pharmacy"},{"key":"B10","year":""},{"key":"B11","article-title":"Clinical reasoning, decisionmaking, and action: thinking critically and clinically","volume-title":"Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses","author":"Benner","year":"2008"},{"key":"B12","volume-title":", International Committee of the Red Cross. 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