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I hate to burst the New Scientist's bubble, but this is nothing new. We have had systems for decades that operated under "Fire and Forget". We have missles that
by davidfekke 4mo ago
I hate to burst the New Scientist's bubble, but this is nothing new. We have had systems for decades that operated under "Fire and Forget". We have missles that either go to a pre-designated point or chase a heat or radar signature once they are fired.
Human soldiers kill civilians and other soldiers on the same side. It is called "friendly fire". It is horrible, and should be avoided, but humans are more likely to make this kind of mistake more than a computer or AI model.
- dieortin 4mo agoThe difference is that in those systems a human chose the target. Here, an AI does. > but humans are more likely to make this kind of mistake more than a computer or AI model Based on?
- Sharlin 4mo agoWhat "choosing the target" means has been fuzzy for a long time too. We've had beyond-visible-range missiles for a long time that are basically "fly to this grid square and find a target".
- Chu4eeno 4mo agoI don't think people realize how much horsepower are in missiles now. The JSM has at least one multicore computer + IR camera + RF homing for target identification (plus GPS, terrain matching/following and inertial for navigation). It can automatically identify not only the best target (and recognize and ignore decoys etc), but also the optimal weak spots to impact.
- machomaster 4mo agoThe stats of USA using human-guided drones to kill people. A civilian/military ratio and numbers was worse that 11.9. Heck, check the American drone war crime video Wikileaks published. The one that made the USA so angry that it decided to attack and destroy the journalists.
- dieortin 4mo agoThe USA tends to kill way more civilians than any other military in the world though, so I’m not sure it’s a good example.
- machomaster 4mo agoOnly the USA has enough war experience and drones for us to have high confidence stats on the performance of human drone operators (military vs. civilian targets) vs. AI.
- dieortin 4mo agoUkraine and Russia have infinitely more experience with drone warfare than the US.
- machomaster 4mo agoStats from Russia/Ukraine are not good. And the ones that exist, could be dismissed for various reasons ("Russians are savages so it doesn't count", "Ukraine is defending itself in existential war so it doesn't count"). With the USA the stats are available and no valid excuses exist to throw the data away. The US military is not defending itself and is supposed to be the most powerful, advanced (tech and policy) and professional military in the world. They are the best case scenario for the human drone operators' performance one has. And yet: https://worldmetrics.org/obama-drone-strikes-statistics/ https://worldmetrics.org/obama-drone-strikes-statistics/
- expedition32 4mo agoI am amused about how emotional people get about AI killing people. In my mind the idea that someone sitting at a screen chosing to blow up other humans is frankly far more terrifying. A computer is unlikely to go "colonel Kurtz".
- machomaster 4mo ago