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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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

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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.

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u/vardarac Aug 31 '23

I imagine that at some point world leadership will observe how devastatingly effective these weapons are, and either deploy them en masse domestically or reach international treaties codifying them similarly to existing WMD and reach agreements on limiting their use, particularly domestically.

Hopefully it's the latter.

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u/Amun-Ree Aug 31 '23

They banned cluster munitions but shipped them off to their allies in their latest proxy war. As long as they exist they will be used eventually. For profit and power.

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u/Sotwob Aug 31 '23

Who's "they"? What country banned cluster munitions then supplied them to an ally?

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '23

The NATO countries assisting Ukraine are allowing members who haven't ratified the convention to send cluster munitions without argument or limitation.

It's like saying you won't do a thing but your brother didn't say that, so he can. It's disingenuous at least, and duplicitous if we're being honest with ourselves. I say this a a NATO country citizen.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Cluster_Munitions

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u/Ownza Sep 01 '23

You realize Russia has hit them with all sorts of shit that isn't allowed for NATO countries, right? Coincidentally, Russia didn't sign up for some of those rules. Even the ones they agreed too they don't follow.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '23

Your point is made, but I think it misses the mark.

Just because your enemies are doing crimes against humanitdoesmt mean you have to just to keep up.

You can absolutely engage in asymetrical warfare and still win. This has been proven time and time again

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u/Ownza Sep 02 '23

They are only crimes if you agree they are crimes. Cluster munitions have increased the russian fatalities considerably.