The owner of a Ukrainian drone company says his aircraft have been used to autonomously target and kill Russian soldiers, with no human direction, on the front lines of his country’s war with Russia. Alexander Kokhanovskyy told New Scientist Magazine the trial was held in 2024 and has not been repeated by his company. The drones were put in “Terminator Mode” and sent to the front line. “We just launch it and we know everything will be dead—everything that will be found there in this particular area will be dead,” Kokhanovskyy told New Scientist. “There is no connection to the drone at all, you cannot see the video, nothing … Everything it sees will be killed.” There was no video feed or any other communication link with the drones so the company sent remotely piloted drones to the area and found two dead soldiers and a destroyed truck.
The magazine said Ukrainian military officials did not respond to questions about this incident. Ukrainian officials at a news conference said while AI is used to identify targets and in other aspects of planning attacks, humans have the final call. Kokhanovskyy told the magazine that as AI gets more sophisticated, there is discussion about how much autonomy the weapons should be allowed.
Amazing. Technology closing in on the silver bullet(s)…
With serious moral and ethical questions….
Thank you Steve.
Russia deserves amoral treatment.
I support the Ukrainians completely. However, the problem is immorality—or amorality—affects the its perpetrator at least as much as it does the object. We learned that at Abu Graib, and many times before as well. It’s ground that must be cautiously trod.