"Dawn of Killer Robots?" Topic

Drone advances in Ukraine have accelerated a long-anticipated technology trend that could soon bring the world's first fully autonomous fighting robots to the battlefield, inaugurating a new age of warfare…

AP: link

It depends a lot on what you want to sell and call 'fully autonomous'.
Just ask the car industry.
It always takes about 'five to ten years' to reach level-5.

With the right definition, even a landmine or other trap is 'fully autonomous'.
Its choice of target is just somewhat arbitrary.
And there is no consensus on the definition among fields of study, scientists, military leaders, or policy makers.

So, yeah, it's a new dawn of war and a lot of people smell the stench of money.
It's the stench in the trench.

Nevertheless, most of the blitzkrieg in World War II consisted of marching soldiers without encountering serious enemy resistance,which was stuck in the past anyway.

Interconnect them all via Skynet. What could go wrong?

I want to see those killer dog robots.

Interconnect them all via Skynet. What could go wrong?

Word on the street is, that means everybody knows, the NSA SKYNET program was/is linked to the US drone strike system, that already killed a lot of people and nobody really cares about false positives, so what should go wrong?

Skynet.
Spooks have a sinister kind of humor, don't they?

:)

Oh, you mean that other Skynet?
Well, it would have to learn really fast to generate energy and transport mass across the planet's surface, especially after it would have messed up the atmosphere a bit with nukes to get rid of all the people that would have loved to help it in exchange for better computer games, streaming series and porn entertainment.
And thus sawed off the branch it was sitting on.

The original Skynet was the UK's satellite comms system, you can visit Skynet Drive in Corsham, Wiltshire (the base of operations), its just off the road to the Wadswick country Store.

Autonomous systems and weapons release is a subject thats keeping a number of my professional friends on both sides of the Atlantic awake at night

"Fully" autonomous would be a bit silly. Recognising friend from foe would be a problem.
Something that you control until it is in contact seems more practical to me. You have an approach non-attack mode is the default. A remote command switches that safety off and aggression on. Anything it can see is considered a target. It engages…. An operator somehow watches it at work. Another remote command then reverses mode to non attack.
It can then have a default 10 minutes or something in combat mode before attack mode requires another confirmation.

That would be far more practical.
You'd want quite short range weapons and maybe a spider shape would be better than a dog shape.

Several years ago Dallas PD used a robot to terminate an individual (Afghan war vet, oh well) who had just murdered five police officers and wounded nine others as well as two civilians. The coward ran into a room at a local college and DPD sent in a robot carrying explosives. Boom. Instant justice. One of those officers was a friend so I still feel strongly about it. Killer robots just aren't for the military anymore.

it's just a matter of time before we see more AI, 'bots, etc. on the battlefield. But I think regardless humans will still be on the ground and in charge.

Choctaw I remember the Dallas PD using a 'bot to takeout a bad guy who would not give up and killed 5 LEOs. I'm sorry for your loss of your friend. But I lauded the use of the 'bot to kill the murder and saved lives.

I'm a full supporter of LEOs using 'bots, drones, etc. to save lives, LEOs and civilian. The very poor Fed gov't support of LEOs has emboldened the criminals. as they know they will be quickly released to commit more crimes again.

I have no problem using 'bots/drones etc. to kill bad guys. But like everything else today the media and vocal minority makes it is about race in many cases whether it has anything to do with it or not.

I expect China will deploy these against its own population ahead of seeing such systems in major conflicts.

YouTube link

The PRC/CCP is one of the world's worst dictatorships on the planet. Their people's deaths mean nothing. They will use any methods to keep control.

AI is smart, up to a point. People will adapt ways to kill these things in battle, eventually (just like they defeat the AI's in computer games.) We're just at the start of a new form of warfare, with each side evolving in response to the other…

AI in games is usually just a sort of decision tree. It doesn't learn or adapt. The developer has to think of everything in advance.
I don't think AI for combat robots has to be very clever. V1 doesn't need to take clever tactical decisions. A person directs mode formation and where they go. The hard part then is identifying targets.

I think humans will always have to be in the decision loop. AI does add a new dimension to warfare. But like as always, the chain is Measure – Countermeasure – Counter/Countermeasure …

AI/'bots will just be part of the modern combined arms team. We see in the Ukraine how effective drones can be. For both recon and strike.

"They're heeeere …"

Russian Marker combat anti-tank robots UGVs arrive in Ukraine to fight Ukrainian tanks

link

Armand