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A human can make smart decisions, even if his radio is jammed and he has no connection to base. What does a "smart" killer robot do, without remote connection,

A human can make smart decisions, even if his radio is jammed and he has no connection to base. What does a "smart" killer robot do, without remote connection, in an unexpected situation? And wars are full of those. And massive jamming (and hacking attempts as well as sensor confusion) is to be expected. So you either have armies that stop fighting regulary out of savety protocols (how likely is that in a war?). Or they do not stop fighting and make AI decisions on who to kill. As far as I am aware, every side knows this and every side is very uncomfortable with this. But it seems every side feels pushed to advance. And sure, humans make errors, too. But autonomous robots have a tendency to work most of the time - and then unexpectedly make a exponentionally mess. That's why most robots who can do damage, work in very constraint settings. But even harmless roombas did make a mess, by swiping dog poo all over the house, while "thinking" it is cleaning. Swarms of killer bots out of control .. is a scenario no one wants. And military is about control, they do not like things they feel they cannot control. So there will be caution. Hopefully it is enough, to not trigger bigger, potentially nuclear mess.

PontifexMinimus 5y ago
> What does a "smart" killer robot do, without remote connection, in an unexpected situation? Possibly kill anything that looks like an enemy, then attempt to return to base or self-destruct. I expect killer robots will be programmed with geographic areas within which they are allowed to kill things.
- hutzlibu 5y ago
  "killer robots will be programmed with geographic areas within which they are allowed to kill things." What about sensor jamming or confusing? How to make sure, it is in the right "kill" area? And if you designate a zone as free to kill everything, you might as well nuke the area.
  - PontifexMinimus 5y ago
    > What about sensor jamming or confusing? This will no doubt happen. > How to make sure, it is in the right "kill" area? If a robot knows where it started from it can use dead reckoning to know roughly where it is. It can also use landmarks it identifies, or celestial navigation. All of these should give it a reasonably accurate idea of its whereabouts. > And if you designate a zone as free to kill everything, you might as well nuke the area. No, because a lot of UGVs will be used as area denial weapons, i.e. as a smart minefield. They might typically stay where they are and monitor than no-one uses the area. Nukes can't do that.
    - hutzlibu 5y ago
      "as a smart minefield." Smart as in kills anything that moves, sure. "All of these should give it a reasonably accurate idea of its whereabouts." But if you add high speeds and bad weather to the scenario, together with highly populated areas, reasonable accurate becomes a relative thing. Unless the drones as a consequence mostly fight themself in remote areas. Might be better than humans fighting in urban areas, but reality most likely will be robots vs. bad equipped humans in urban areas.

PontifexMinimus 5y ago

> What does a "smart" killer robot do, without remote connection, in an unexpected situation? Possibly kill anything that looks like an enemy, then attempt to return to base or self-destruct. I expect killer robots will be programmed with geographic areas within which they are allowed to kill things.

hutzlibu 5y ago
"killer robots will be programmed with geographic areas within which they are allowed to kill things." What about sensor jamming or confusing? How to make sure, it is in the right "kill" area? And if you designate a zone as free to kill everything, you might as well nuke the area.
- PontifexMinimus 5y ago
  > What about sensor jamming or confusing? This will no doubt happen. > How to make sure, it is in the right "kill" area? If a robot knows where it started from it can use dead reckoning to know roughly where it is. It can also use landmarks it identifies, or celestial navigation. All of these should give it a reasonably accurate idea of its whereabouts. > And if you designate a zone as free to kill everything, you might as well nuke the area. No, because a lot of UGVs will be used as area denial weapons, i.e. as a smart minefield. They might typically stay where they are and monitor than no-one uses the area. Nukes can't do that.
  - hutzlibu 5y ago
    "as a smart minefield." Smart as in kills anything that moves, sure. "All of these should give it a reasonably accurate idea of its whereabouts." But if you add high speeds and bad weather to the scenario, together with highly populated areas, reasonable accurate becomes a relative thing. Unless the drones as a consequence mostly fight themself in remote areas. Might be better than humans fighting in urban areas, but reality most likely will be robots vs. bad equipped humans in urban areas.