ATTACK OF THE KILLER ROBOTS

 Killer robots have been a staple of science fiction and dystopian writing for decades. A new UN report suggests that reality has now caught up with what has been mere fantasy until now, in the form of lethal autonomous drones unleashed in Libya last March.

Striking video of a swarm of Kargu drones in action

Credit: STM/YouTube

As reported in New Scientist, a just-published UN report details an attack on retreating partisan forces in a Libyan civil war by autonomous Kargu-2 quadcopters programmed to identify their targets, including humans, home in on them and explode. The 7 kg (15 lb) Kargu drones are designed to fly in swarms too numerous to be defended against. According to the anonymous source for the UN report, these kamikaze drones were "highly effective" in hunting down and killing retreating soldiers.

The New Scientist story about this apparent first actual use of fully autonomous weapons in warfare underlines the urgency of forging an international agreement concerning (and hopefully outlawing) their use.

Unfortunately, in advance of any such agreement, yet another malevolent genie has been unchained.

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REA 5-28-21

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Predictably, the use of a drone swarm in warfare described above was not a one-off. In it's 30 June, 2021 edition, New Scientist reports that Israel used an AI-guided drone swarm to target Hamas militants in Gaza. Given that both China and the US are reportedly developing drone swarm technology, we're almost sure to see more use of these autonomous or semi-autonomous killer swarms in the near future. New Scientist quotes Zak Kallenborn, a terrorism and counter-terrorism expert as pointing out that larger and larger swarms can be expected. “A handful of swarming drones is probably not a big risk, but what about 10,000? We may be looking at the emergence of a new weapon of mass destruction”

You can read more at: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2282656-israel-used-worlds-first-ai-guided-combat-drone-swarm-in-gaza-attacks/#ixzz6zQILCcZr