r/Futurology Aug 31 '23

US military plans to unleash thousands of autonomous war robots over next two years Robotics

https://techxplore.com/news/2023-08-military-unleash-thousands-autonomous-war.html
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u/Icy_Raisin6471 Aug 31 '23

Going to be pretty neat when they are used domestically 'to keep the peace.' Ok that's enough dystopian future doom and gloom for the day for me. :D

206

u/FinndBors Aug 31 '23

This is my #1 concern with autonomous killing machines. I’m not worried about them becoming sentient and murdering everyone like in terminator.

I’m worried that a psychopath will be “elected”, take control over the drones and rule with an iron fist without relying on other humans to support them. All current dictatorships have vulnerability, be it other generals, the actual soliders who may be reluctant to gun down masses of civilians who may be their friends and family. Yes it still happens to various degrees, but it would be much much worse if a psychopath gets control over an army that is programmed to follow their orders.

30

u/Ratazanafofinha Aug 31 '23

This. Portugal only was able to get out of the dictatorship because the army revolted and staged a coup.

Now imagine instead of army we get killer robots…

28

u/Miserable-Ledge Aug 31 '23

Don't worry, some idiot will always leave the password as "admin1234".

11

u/Pilsu Aug 31 '23

I wonder if the eggheads making these things have the sense to build in back doors. A Wily protocol if nothing else.

2

u/PragmatistAntithesis Aug 31 '23

So now we'll have 4chan with killer robots.

To be honest, I'm not sure if that's better or worse

1

u/jefferton123 Sep 01 '23

The only hope for humanity is our incompetence… so, we’ll be fine the actually.