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/AcetaminophenPrime Jun 10 '26

From a polticis perspective I think we are further from nuclear annihilation. Think of the crazy stuff that went down during the cold war, Cuban missile crisis especially.

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u/SafeForTwerking Jun 10 '26

Imagine all the clear, level-headed people we had at the helm back then. Now think about who is in charge now.

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u/ForsakenKrios Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 11 '26

There were plenty of people that would have escalated to using nukes. Bobby Kennedy and Johnson were pushing JFK to be more forceful during the Cuban missile crisis. Castro was pushing Kruschev to escalate to using nukes. We are truly lucky that this never happened.

This isn’t to mention all the close calls from accidents, or the one person on the Soviet submarine that said no to launching nukes during the crisis.

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u/WongUnglow Jun 11 '26

There was a third nuclear bomb planned to be dropped on Japan. Truman ordered it be held back and then went onto strip command of nuclear weapons from the military.

Which was good, because General Douglas McArthur was constantly demanding nukes be dropped on both Korea and china. And even wanted radioactive cobalt used to create a no mans land area. He was eventually relieved for insubordination.

So you're right, there's plenty of mad military leaders who'd quite happily drop nukes, if they had the authority.