An interview with the CEO of Ukrainian drone manufacturer Aero Center is causing a stir: Alexander Kokhanovskyy told the British magazine New Scientist that fully autonomous AI drones killed soldiers on their own for the first time about two years ago. The incident occurred in the war in Ukraine, with no human involved in the attack decision.
According to Kokhanovskyy, ten AI-controlled drones were deployed at the front in a one-time test. They flew autonomously to the front line and activated a so-called “Terminator” mode, in which the system independently acquired and eliminated targets. “We launch the drones and know that everything will be dead,” the CEO is quoted as saying. “There is no connection to the drone, you don’t see any video, nothing. It kills everything it sees.”
After the test, manually controlled drones surveyed the area and found, according to Kokhanovskyy, “a few soldiers, a truck.” The casualties were on the Russian side. There is no independent confirmation of the incident; the Ukrainian Defense Ministry has not officially commented. New Scientist is a renowned British science magazine that has been published since 1956.
The use of autonomous weapons systems has been controversially debated for years. In 2020, the Turkish quadcopter Kargu-2 reportedly attacked people autonomously in Libya, but evidence of fatalities is lacking. The US is also developing autonomous systems such as “Goalkeeper” and “Whiplash,” but still requires human authorization. The reported incident could reignite the debate over regulating such weapons.
Source: www.n-tv.de
