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I guess autonomous platforms are exciting to defense procurement and war planners because they can use them much more aggressively in theatre without risking ex

I guess autonomous platforms are exciting to defense procurement and war planners because they can use them much more aggressively in theatre without risking expensive pilots. It's hard not to think of the recent reporting on the "Lavender" AI targeting system and how these two ideas combined will lead to more indiscriminate killing of civilians. What's the calculus for human American pilot lives to collateral civilian lives? 5:1 or 40:1?

kjkjadksj 2y ago
Collateral damage should be at historic lows with an ai army. Fly a swarm like birds over a city, identify your target, and you can selectively eliminate that target with a single bullet from the drone. Sure beats filling the sky with bombers and flattening a city overnight as was done in wwii.
- littlestymaar 2y ago
  The problem is how you define your “target”. In Israeli Lavender program it seems they are killing people for belonging to the same Whatsapp group as someone identified as a terrorist. And that's because Israel has a long time policy of “punishing” family members of “terrorists” (the term includes both legit terrorists but also people who are just political opponents).
  - gnatman 2y ago
    Exactly. Simply "identify the target"! It's an incredibly broad handwave that ignores all the unsolved problems in computer vision and warfare fire control.
- bugglebeetle 2y ago
  It’s the height of irony to respond to this comment with some techno-utopian BS, when the parent is describing how AI is actually being used, right now, to inflict mass casualties on a civilian population. At what point to people abandon their Panglossian hypotheticals and stare reality in its face?
- lossolo 2y ago
  Read this https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/ https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/ It's not as simple as you say and it doesn't work currently as you say.
- adhamsalama 2y ago
  Israel did flatten Gaza. They don't care about killing innocent civilians.
  - kjkjadksj 2y ago
    Well they tried to wait for the civilian population in the north to evacuate before they advanced, unlike the Americans to say the Japanese, Germans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, and scores more who they bombed indiscriminately. I’d say that this conflict is a huge step in the right direction in terms of the treatment of civilians in war. War is ugly especially when the adversary embeds their infrastructure with their civilian population, in order to maximize collateral damage and shift international sentiment.

kjkjadksj 2y ago

Collateral damage should be at historic lows with an ai army. Fly a swarm like birds over a city, identify your target, and you can selectively eliminate that target with a single bullet from the drone. Sure beats filling the sky with bombers and flattening a city overnight as was done in wwii.

littlestymaar 2y ago
The problem is how you define your “target”. In Israeli Lavender program it seems they are killing people for belonging to the same Whatsapp group as someone identified as a terrorist. And that's because Israel has a long time policy of “punishing” family members of “terrorists” (the term includes both legit terrorists but also people who are just political opponents).
- gnatman 2y ago
  Exactly. Simply "identify the target"! It's an incredibly broad handwave that ignores all the unsolved problems in computer vision and warfare fire control.
bugglebeetle 2y ago
It’s the height of irony to respond to this comment with some techno-utopian BS, when the parent is describing how AI is actually being used, right now, to inflict mass casualties on a civilian population. At what point to people abandon their Panglossian hypotheticals and stare reality in its face?
lossolo 2y ago
Read this https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/ https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/ It's not as simple as you say and it doesn't work currently as you say.
adhamsalama 2y ago
Israel did flatten Gaza. They don't care about killing innocent civilians.
- kjkjadksj 2y ago
  Well they tried to wait for the civilian population in the north to evacuate before they advanced, unlike the Americans to say the Japanese, Germans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, and scores more who they bombed indiscriminately. I’d say that this conflict is a huge step in the right direction in terms of the treatment of civilians in war. War is ugly especially when the adversary embeds their infrastructure with their civilian population, in order to maximize collateral damage and shift international sentiment.