PDB Afternoon Bulletin | August 25th, 2026: Russia Just Crossed a Terrifying AI Threshold & Washington Reopens Embassies

It's Tuesday, the 25th of August. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. Okay fine. It's more like the early evening bulletin today. I'm Mike Baker from your eyes and ears on the world stage. Alright, let's get briefed. First up, Russia crosses a dangerous new threshold in Ukraine, deploying an AI guided drone that made the final targeting decision in an attack that killed three civilians. In other words, removing the human from the decision about whether to kill humans. Later in the show, despite the ongoing hostilities between the United States and Iran, Washington prepares to return diplomats to embassies evacuated from the region during the war. Suggesting perhaps that the administration does not expect full skill fighting anytime soon. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. Russia is now testing a new generation of attack drones in Ukraine that can identify and strike targets without a human operator making the final decision. You create an investigator, say one of those drones killed three civilians in Zaporizia last month after its onboard artificial intelligence system, selected a gas station as a target. And the computer powering the system was an inexpensive, commercially available device, made by the American technology company in video. The attack happened on July 6th when a group of roughly six Russian drones approached the city. One of them was directed toward a gas station where Ukrainian officials believe it had been trained to recognize and attack propane tanks. The drone crashed into a wall before reaching the tanks and exploded, killing three people. Among the victims was a 19-year-old university student who had taken shelter near an apartment building after hearing explosions. According to Ukrainian investigators, human operators had selected the general destination and sent the drone toward the gas station. But once it reached the area, the drone's onboard computer took over and selected the exact target on its own. And that distinction is what makes this story so important and troubling. Both Russia and Ukraine already used drones with artificial intelligence during the final stage of an attack. A human operator selects a target and then the AI guides the drone through the final few hundred yards. That allows the weapon to continue tracking its target, even if electronic warfare cuts the connection with the pilot. But the drone's Russia tested in Zaporizia, reportedly removed the human operator from that final decision. The system was trained using thousands of images, so it could recognize certain categories of objects, including propane tanks, and decide what to strike after reaching the target area. Ukrainian officials say the recovered drones did not have antennas and were not emitting radio signals. That meant there was no pilot controlling them remotely, and no communications link for Ukrainian forces to jam. Investigators also recovered the computer that appears to have guided the weapon. It was an Nvidia Jetson-Oren, a small AI module designed for civilian robotics and machine vision applications. The device was not encrypted, allowing Ukrainian investigators to examine the information stored inside. They say they found terrain images used to guide the drone, along with coding that revealed the kind of objects the system had been trained to recognize. Nvidia confirmed that photographs of recovered hardware showed one of its Jetson-Oren computers. The company says the devices are consumer grade products, sold the students and developers in startups, and were never designed for military use. Nvidia does not sell them in Russia, but the computers are widely available through resellers and cost only a few hundred dollars. Once they enter the secondary market, Nvidia says it has almost no ability to track where they ultimately end up. The circuit board carrying the Nvidia chip was marked, quote, "made in China." Oh, although it remains unclear how Russia obtained the device. Essentially, Russia did not need to develop a classified military computer, or manufacture an advanced chip from scratch. It appears to have taken an inexpensive civilian product, combined it with targeting software and installed it inside a mass-produced attack drone. Ukraine's Defense Intelligence Agency says a similar Nvidia computer was recently found inside a new Russian missile known as the S-71M Monochrome. Investigators believe that system may also be using AI for guidance. This technology could make Russian drones much harder to stop. Traditional electronic warfare works by interrupting the signal between the drone and its pilot, but if the drone has no pilot and no signal, well, there's nothing to interrupt. It also allows Russia to launch more weapons without requiring a trained operator for every drone. Once the system improves, Russia could send large groups of autonomous weapons into an area and instruct them to search independently for fuel tanks or military vehicles, artillery systems, or other pre-determined targets. And Russia is not alone in developing this capability. Ukraine has also tested fully autonomous drones against Russian fuel storage sites and military equipment and occupied Crimea. Ukraine officials say those operations did not kill civilians. But the attack in Zaporitsia may be the first documented case in which a Russian drone using fully autonomous targeting caused civilian deaths. The larger concern is that neither Russian or Ukraine will be the last country to use these systems. The components are inexpensive, the software will continue improving, and the lessons being learned in Ukraine will spread. For years, governments and human rights organizations have debated whether machines should be allowed to make lethal targeting decisions without human approval. Well, it doesn't seem like you'd need to debate something like that, but that debate, regardless, may now be falling behind the technology. All right, coming up next, Washington prepares to send diplomats back to embassies across the Middle East, a possible indication that the US administration believes another round of full-scale war with Iran is unlikely. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here, with a pro tip for everybody out there who loves delicious food. Come on, there's a lot of you out there. Have you heard of Goldbelly? Goldbelly ships America's most iconic foods from legendary restaurants straight to your door anywhere in the US. Seriously, couldn't be easier. Look, I've ordered all sorts of food from Goldbelly. Ribs pulled pork, McCloon's lobster rolls from main cupcakes. 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Again, that's cardiff.co/PDB. Real growth. Fast funding. Cardiff. Barrow better. Welcome back to the PDB afternoon bulletin. The Trump administration appears increasingly confident that a full-scale war with Iran is not about to resume, and the clear sign of that may not be anything that President Trump has said, it's what the State Department is preparing to do on the ground. A new report from the New York Times reveals that American diplomats could begin returning to embassies across them at least, as soon as this week, reversing some of the emergency measures put in place before and during the war with Iran. The Times obtained an internal State Department document outlining the plans, which were also described by three US officials to the outlet on condition of anonymity, where they probably requested anonymity because they weren't supposed to open their yaps. In late February, just one day before the United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran, non-essential embassy workers in Jerusalem and their families were given the option to leave Israel at government expense. It wasn't long after the opening strikes of Operation Epic Fury that the Iranian regime retaliated. As the conflict spread, Iran and its regional proxies targeted American diplomatic outposts in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and elsewhere with explosive drones and rockets. The threat became serious enough that the State Department ordered evacuations across the region and in some countries, American diplomats were told to work from home. rather than inside embassy compounds. Now, net posture is beginning to change. Under the new plan revealed in the State Department document, the first diplomats to return will be sent back to the US Embassy in Lebanon. Eventually, embassies in Israel, Jordan, and Oman are expected to return to full staffing or near full staffing. But Washington isn't giving the region an all clear just yet. Embassies in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Lebanon will initially be capped at 85% staffing levels. Iraq, Kuwait, and Bahrain will remain lower at 75%. Restrictions on bringing family members will also remain in place across the six Gulf countries and Lebanon. Washington appears increasingly comfortable putting American diplomats back on the ground, while still treating Iran and the regional security environment as a serious threat. In a statement separate from the internal document, the State Department says, quote, "based on our latest assessment, we are adjusting our staffing posture at certain posts to the Middle East to ensure that we can continue advancing US foreign policy objectives," end quote. And the timing makes that assessment particularly notable. Former US ambassador to Israel during the Obama administration Dan Shapiro put it this way, quote, "returning personnel to missions that were partly evacuated suggests that the administration believes the war is winding down," end quote. Now, that doesn't mean another confrontation is impossible, of course, and the continued staffing and family restrictions make it clear that Washington isn't treating the danger from Iran as gone, at least not just yet. And that, my friends, is the PDB after an imposing for Tuesday, the 25th of August. If you have any questions or comments and I hope you do, just reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And to listen to the show Add Free, it is very simple. Just become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting PDBpremium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. (upbeat music) Hey, Mike Baker here with an important message for homeowners. 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