Tag: War

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Autonomously Attacking Drones

On October 17, 2023, Forbes magazine’s senior contributor David Hambling reported a significant advance in Ukraine’s autonomous warfare capacities. Ukrainian developers confirmed their drones, namely Saker Scout, were autonomously striking Russian forces, marking the first acknowledged use of such technology. These drones can identify and target up to 64 types of Russian military objects, remaining operational even in areas of radio jamming. Developed and put into service by Saker, a company initially established for AI applications in small businesses, these quadcopters can carry three kilos of bombs to a 12-kilometre range. Saker’s machine learning-based system is continually evolving and operational updates cater to the detection of new, specific objects or vehicles. Complemented with visual navigation using ground landmarks, the drones can function even without GPS. While the talk of banning ‘killer robot’ type technology continues, there is yet no international agreement. Paul Scharre, Director of Studies at the Centre for a New American Security, aptly said, “The pace of technology far outstrips the pace of diplomacy.” (Forbes, 17 October 2023)

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Could Artificial Intelligence Trigger Wars?

Deep fakes are a young phenomenon. Of course there have been fake videos for a long time. But that artificial intelligence makes the production possible, even in standard applications, is new. On August 1, an article dedicated to the phenomenon was published in the German newspaper Die Welt. It begins with the following words: “It is well known that a picture says more than a thousand words. And moving images, i.e. videos, are still regarded as unmistakable proof that something has taken place exactly as it can be seen in the film. … Powerful artificial intelligence (AI) processes now make it possible to produce such perfect counterfeits that it is no longer possible to tell with the naked eye whether a video is real or manipulated. In so-called deep fake videos, people say or do things they would never say or do.” Among others, the philosopher Oliver Bendel is quoted. The article with the title “Artificial intelligence could trigger wars” can be downloaded via www.welt.de.