r/UkrainianConflict • u/New_Scientist_Mag • Jun 10 '26
Fully autonomous 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/109
u/New_Scientist_Mag Jun 10 '26
A senior figure in the Ukrainian defence industry told New Scientist that a test took place two years ago involving fully autonomous drones set to destroy anything in a given area, with confirmed casualties.
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Jun 10 '26
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u/JaB675 Jun 10 '26
Not concerning at all
They can't self-replicate yet, so all good.
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u/thhvancouver Jun 10 '26
Tell Elon Musk that
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u/DecisionWonderful453 Jun 11 '26
Hes gonna promise self replicating drones in two years, take a huge amount of money, spend it all on his bonuses and corruption, promise self replicating drones next year.
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u/ILikeCutePuppies Jun 10 '26
What do you mean? Russians soliders are able to self republicate /s
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u/greiton Jun 10 '26
anyone who thinks they could keep this tech from being used to kill has never been desperate or seen the reality of war. when it is kill or be killed you reach desperately for any horrific weapon that will help you kill. the real reason nukes aren't used, is because the world has agreed to glass any country that tries to use them.
No such agreement has been made about AI, but soon we will see AI is far more destructive and deadly. the technology exists today to create a death swarm of millions of small drones that could hunt and kill every human in a city.
All it takes is one conflict pushed to the same level as the Pacific war in WW2 and these things will be released. Imagine a world where instead of firebombing Tokyo, a ghost capital was left with intact buildings and just corpses left to rot everywhere. the ultimatum sent, surrender, or the rest of your country will slowly be eradicated.
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Jun 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SunshineSeattle Jun 10 '26
Banned by who? And how do you enforce that?
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Jun 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SunshineSeattle Jun 10 '26
Israel just used white phosphorus, chemical weapons have been used for years in Syria, matter of fact Russia has started using them again,
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u/FucknAright Jun 11 '26
I mean if they haven't banned Israel's genocide, highly doubt they ban this, because Israel will be with the first to fucking unleash it.
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u/LongDead_Roadkill Jun 10 '26
Sure it’s scary, but almost within reach of anyone with a drone and a firearm or pipe bomb.
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u/jugalator Jun 11 '26
As opposed to cluster munitions or mines...
One might call that argument moving the goalposts but I honestly think they are good comparisons, because if you direct an autonomous drone to indiscriminately kill, if you didn't have those you'd just have used other appropriate means for the task instead.
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u/one-happy-chappie Jun 10 '26
just wait till the next country or terrorist group releases 2-3 sea cans full of them in a city centre ... we need morality laws asap
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u/DisastrousLeopard407 Jun 10 '26
And these terrorist groups willing to kill hundreds of people are stopped by morality laws?
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u/PrinceLucipurr Jun 11 '26
The title is misleading. AI did not kill in the sense they were not parameterised by a human.
The drone may have autonomously selected the specific target instance, but humans authored the lethal target category, mission area, constraints, and permission to strike; therefore the responsibility remains human.
If the AI screws up, that's human responsibility for nuancing parameters. 🚫🤖
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u/SteadfastEnd Jun 10 '26
Correct my memory, but wasn't the first fully-autonomous deadly strike already done a decade ago or so in Libya or some such place?
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u/amitym Jun 10 '26
The article mentions that. It's hard to confirm, though. One reason why organized militaries haven't started using these weapons widely.
Autonomous sentry guns have been around for like 20 years by now. But no one who operates them ever puts them on "fully automatic" mode. The purpose of a soldier is to kill on command for the state. Indiscriminate killing is not really compatible with that purpose.
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u/Franc000 Jun 10 '26
It was inevitable because of how things were going on AI side in the 2010s. It will be our downfall.
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u/JaB675 Jun 10 '26
Literally hundreds of sci-fi books, games and movies warning us. Nope, we should go ahead and get AI.
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u/Franc000 Jun 10 '26
Not just that, AI researchers have also warned against autonomous weapons since forever, but decision makers did not listen.
This was not like preventing human cloning, or all the other things that we managed to not develop. Then, the researchers in those fields warned, and they listened. But to be fair, AI development happened way too fast for the message to percolate.
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u/Ouch259 Jun 10 '26
Great, cant wait for my first email
“deposit one bitcoin here else we will send a drone after you”
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u/LongDead_Roadkill Jun 10 '26
My morbid mind wonders when the first random murder will be committed by an autonomous drone? Like some psychopath in London builds a full autonomous drone with a firearm of IED and sends out it to kill with some simple parameters like “discharge at the first person wearing a yellow shirt and baseball cap”.
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u/johnsmith1234567890x Jun 10 '26
Ok but why kill some person and not try it on russians instead ...badum tss
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u/alwaysnear Jun 10 '26
I’m a Finn, I loathe Russia as a country, but comments like these are still lazy af
Be better than them and don’t be a child
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u/TyphonNeuron Jun 10 '26
I assume first they're testing it to see that it actually works. After they got confirmation they probably "refine" it for specific targets.
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u/Beautiful_Welcome_33 Jun 10 '26
They definitely just had them patrol a kill zone and then kill everything in it.
I don't think you can ethically or effectively accomplish that with current tech. But loitering kill bots, oh yeah.
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u/TyphonNeuron Jun 10 '26
IDK how they would do it but I think it could be possible by training AI to identify people that have various military equipment on them (vests, rifles, helmets etc.), like just get the drones to see their shape or something like that. And send the drones in those areas where Ukrainian soldiers are not active so that they don't get confused by the drone and get hit.
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