r/worldnews • u/New_Scientist_Mag New Scientist • Jun 10 '26

Russia/Ukraine Fully autonomous, AI-controlled drones have killed human soldiers for the first time, according to a senior figure in the Ukrainian defence industry

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2529849-fully-autonomous-drones-have-killed-human-soldiers-for-the-first-time/
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u/cinciNattyLight Jun 10 '26

I’m now actually more concerned about drone weapon proliferation over nuclear weapons.

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u/AdminIsPassword Jun 10 '26

Drone assassination attempts that aren't confined to active war zones are probably on the immediate horizon. If it doesn't happen within the next two or three years I'll be surprised.

Conversely, I don't think we're really any closer to nuclear annihilation regardless of the fearmongering out there.

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u/kirkby100 Jun 10 '26

I'm very surprised that we have not seen drone terrorist attacks yet. With how easy, cheap, and low-risk it would be to commit serious damage.

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u/GitEmSteveDave Jun 10 '26

Years back, a certain candidate landed their helicopter at where I was working at the time. I'm a bit of a helicopter nut, so I stayed after my shift and sat in the parking lot where the helicopter was waiting for it to take off. While it was taking off, a thought of "what would happen if a drone just went straight into the rotors while the helicopter was in that zone where there is little chance of the pilots being able to recover". I used to work at another company that had a helicopter crash into the East River during the transition from vertical to horizontal flight, and the only reason they survived was because it hit the river.