Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time

Drones are a common sight on the battlefields of Ukraine, but they are normally controlled / Fully autonomous drones with no human oversight have killed soldiers on the battlefield for the first time. This is according to a senior figure in the Ukrainian defence industry, marking a watershed moment in warfare. The one-off test involved 10 AI-controlled “Terminator” drones on the front line of the Ukraine war. AIs can’t stop recommending nuclear strikes in war game simulations “We tried it,” says drone-maker Alexander Kokhanovskyy, who supplied the technology and spoke to New Scientist at a press event hosted . “It’s a test. Victims included “a couple of soldiers, one truck”, says Kokhanovskyy. While there is no recording of the automated drones attacking these targets, it was concluded that the drones had killed them. Why I have changed my mind about AI and you should too Kokhanovskyy says that he was not at the test personally but that it was carried out a Ukrainian counteroffensive push. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence did not respond to questions about the test or the current legal position on the use of fully autonomous weapons. The use of AI is common in militaries around the world, helping to pick targets among overwhelming piles of intelligence data and automating certain functions of weapons, but humans are always in the loop at some point. Kokhanovskyy’s admission is the most categorical evidence yet that a death has occurred in battle solely at the hands of AI. The Ukrainian government currently bans the use of AI at the final stage of intercepting targets, according to defence company sources speaking at the embassy press conference, although AI is used for many parts of the process . Kokhanovskyy says that the government is aware of the growing capabilities of AI and that it is in talks with defence companies about whether or not rules should be made more lenient. Reports in 2023 suggested that Ukrainian attack drones equipped with artificial intelligence were finding and attacking targets without human assistance – but were being deployed against vehicles such as tanks, rather than infantry. At the time, no human casualties were confirmed. AI may blunt our thinking skills – here’s what you can do about it While there is no official international ban on autonomous weapons that can kill without human intervention, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called for one, saying last year that “there is no place for lethal autonomous weapon systems in our world”.