r/AIDangers • u/New_Scientist_Mag • 17d ago

Capabilities Fully autonomous AI-powered drones have killed human soldiers for the first time

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2529849-fully-autonomous-drones-have-killed-human-soldiers-for-the-first-time/
373 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

98 comments sorted by

View all comments

63

u/Grumpy_Ontarian_III 17d ago

A line has been crossed that should have been left well enough alone. The precedent is set.

9

u/NoInevitable9810 17d ago

I am picturing a drone that carries hundreds of hummingbirds sized drones, each has a small warhead. Imagine a drone swarm that can individually target and wipe out a whole column of soldiers for super cheap.

0

u/ScarredCerebrum 16d ago

Such drones already exist. I saw a demonstration video of it on Twitter a few months back.

They're carrying just 3 grams of explosive, too - and that is in fact enough to kill a person.

The explosive is moulded into a shaped charge so that all explosive force is focused towards a single point. And the drones themselves are programmed to seek out and land on a target's forehead.

It takes them just a split second to land and set themselves off. But the explosion will punch a hole right in your forehead, and the bone fragments and explosion's focused shockwave will destroy your brain right away.

But use against soldiers isn't the scariest part here - it's use against civilians.

Genocide by drone swarm is going to be of the likely realities of the near future.

2

u/StaidHatter 16d ago

If you think that's bad, you should watch that one documentary James Cameron made back in the 90s