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Autonomous drones killed Russian soldiers in a military test two years ago, according to a Ukrainian drone manufacturer. If true, the incident could represent another milestone in a war that has led to unprecedented developments in military drones, robots, and AI-guided weapons.
The simultaneous test was revealed by Alexander Kokhanovskyy, CEO of Ukrainian drone maker Aero Center, during the conference. interview with New Scientist at a press conference hosted by the Ukrainian Embassy in London. Kokhanovskyy described the test as using quadcopter drones that were programmed to fly to front-line locations before activating an AI-controlled “Terminator mode” that would search for and attack any target in a given area.
Apparently there was no video footage or anything to show what the “Terminator” drones look for and attack. But Kokhanovskyy told New Scientist that manned drones sent to investigate the incident found “several” dead Russian soldiers, prompting the autonomous drones to kill them.
A senior Ukrainian military official told New Scientist that his pilots only use autonomous systems that are always manned to make critical decisions. He also stated Ukraine’s commitment to “international humanitarian law” while stressing that the military always exercises “extreme care in making decisions to avoid civilian casualties.”
The simultaneous nature of this experiment makes sense considering the limitations of this approach, along with the implications of international human rights law. Sending autonomous drones to attack anything and everything in a given area without human intervention requires careful planning and is vulnerable to so-called “friendly fire” or non-combatant attacks. It is also unclear how good these autonomous quadcopter drones were at selecting and attacking targets compared to human pilots.
