4 ms·

I wonder if they will be able to put AI into missiles to detect Infrared decoys (flares, IR laser) or radar countermeasures (chaff, jamming). Military counterm

I wonder if they will be able to put AI into missiles to detect Infrared decoys (flares, IR laser) or radar countermeasures (chaff, jamming). Military countermeasures are really cool, if you can get past the whole moral dilemmas in working with technology like that.

dingaling 8y ago
There was rudimentary intelligence in missiles such as the BAe ASRAAM back in the late 1990s. For example extrapolating the shape of the target from the IIR image and rejecting objects that were non-geometric, or too small, or too consistently hot.
madengr 8y ago
What moral dilemma? There are plenty of people who would kill (pick your group) on the spot. Being armed is good.
- wedn3sday 8y ago
  This comment is extremely naive. Once you create a weapon, you have no control over how its used by politicians years later. The engineers who made the avionics system for the Predator drones (just as a random example) are somewhat responsible for when those drones are used to bomb wedding parties, even if when they were developing the drone it was only intended for surveillance. Most of the people who would like to kill (pick my group), would like to do so because of careless use of advanced weapons systems by politicians who're only interested in the next election cycle. The politicians could never have bombed those wedding parties, and thus created the people that want to kill my group, if some very smart and morally bankrupt engineers hadnt given them the ability to do so. Being armed is only good if you trust the people who control those arms. I dont know where you live, but the guy in control of my countries military is a narcissistic cheeto with the IQ of a cuncused wombat, whos first week in office involved the authorization of a combat mission that resulted in more then 20 dead non-combatants [0], including a 4 year old child. [0] https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/03/politics/yemen-raid-trump-obama/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/03/politics/yemen-raid-trump-oba...
  - jakeogh 8y ago
    "narcissistic cheeto" strong (among other things...) argument there. If dropping bombs on people is your metric, you might want to mention his predecessor.
  - jessaustin 8y ago
    Yes it was a terrible error for Congress to declare war against the Houthi in Yemen. Very few USA interests have been served by all the children we've killed there since March 2015.
outworlder 8y ago
Military tech, from an engineering standpoint, is always cool. Everything from aerodynamic designs to software control systems. But that's looking at the finished products. A project on the other hand must be hell on earth. I can't imagine the level of bureaucracy needed to get anything done, or that the average engineer has any say on anything.
jhayward 8y ago
> I wonder if they will be able to put AI into missiles Missiles arguably already have AI. It is a source of mild frustration for control systems engineers to note AI researchers "discovering" techniques and algorithms that are mathematically identical, or very similar to, things that have been known and used in control systems for years, decades even.
- sterlind 8y ago
  That's the downside of working on classified tech, right? You get huge budgets and work a decade ahead of civilian gear, but you're doomed to see civs reinvent your stuff and take all the credit. For instance, the NSA had public key crypto long before RSA was discovered.
  - jhayward 8y ago
    Yes, it happens in secret vs open but I'm talking about all open stuff. It just isn't sexy when control systems engineers do it.

dingaling 8y ago

There was rudimentary intelligence in missiles such as the BAe ASRAAM back in the late 1990s. For example extrapolating the shape of the target from the IIR image and rejecting objects that were non-geometric, or too small, or too consistently hot.

madengr 8y ago

What moral dilemma? There are plenty of people who would kill (pick your group) on the spot. Being armed is good.

wedn3sday 8y ago
This comment is extremely naive. Once you create a weapon, you have no control over how its used by politicians years later. The engineers who made the avionics system for the Predator drones (just as a random example) are somewhat responsible for when those drones are used to bomb wedding parties, even if when they were developing the drone it was only intended for surveillance. Most of the people who would like to kill (pick my group), would like to do so because of careless use of advanced weapons systems by politicians who're only interested in the next election cycle. The politicians could never have bombed those wedding parties, and thus created the people that want to kill my group, if some very smart and morally bankrupt engineers hadnt given them the ability to do so. Being armed is only good if you trust the people who control those arms. I dont know where you live, but the guy in control of my countries military is a narcissistic cheeto with the IQ of a cuncused wombat, whos first week in office involved the authorization of a combat mission that resulted in more then 20 dead non-combatants [0], including a 4 year old child. [0] https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/03/politics/yemen-raid-trump-obama/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/03/politics/yemen-raid-trump-oba...
- jakeogh 8y ago
  "narcissistic cheeto" strong (among other things...) argument there. If dropping bombs on people is your metric, you might want to mention his predecessor.
- jessaustin 8y ago
  Yes it was a terrible error for Congress to declare war against the Houthi in Yemen. Very few USA interests have been served by all the children we've killed there since March 2015.

outworlder 8y ago

Military tech, from an engineering standpoint, is always cool. Everything from aerodynamic designs to software control systems. But that's looking at the finished products. A project on the other hand must be hell on earth. I can't imagine the level of bureaucracy needed to get anything done, or that the average engineer has any say on anything.

jhayward 8y ago

> I wonder if they will be able to put AI into missiles Missiles arguably already have AI. It is a source of mild frustration for control systems engineers to note AI researchers "discovering" techniques and algorithms that are mathematically identical, or very similar to, things that have been known and used in control systems for years, decades even.

sterlind 8y ago
That's the downside of working on classified tech, right? You get huge budgets and work a decade ahead of civilian gear, but you're doomed to see civs reinvent your stuff and take all the credit. For instance, the NSA had public key crypto long before RSA was discovered.
- jhayward 8y ago
  Yes, it happens in secret vs open but I'm talking about all open stuff. It just isn't sexy when control systems engineers do it.