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In a televised event, Russia's President Vladimir Putin spoke to a group of students about a number of topics, including AI and drones:
Russian president Vladimir Putin spoke about the potential power of artificial intelligence to students on Friday, saying "the one who becomes the leader in this sphere will be the ruler of the world," according to Associated Press. He then said "it would be strongly undesirable if someone wins a monopolist position," indicating that Russia would cooperate with other countries in the development of AI. While Russia is seen as skilled in technological propaganda, it has little presence in mainstream AI research.
Putin also envisioned a future for war where drones, ostensibly controlled by artificial intelligence, would fight proxy wars between countries. "When one party's drones are destroyed by drones of another, it will have no other choice but to surrender," he said.
Russian companies have been actively researching autonomous weapons, such as drones, robots and missiles, which would be able to pick targets and fire on their own. Documents from the US military show similar strategies, where swarms of drones would assist troops with real-time intelligence gathering and air support.
Putin puts on his Musk hat:
Putin touched on the topic of space technologies, hoping that space travel technology could one day be used in passenger travel, though not necessarily for journeys into outer space. He described the slashing of flight time from Russia's westernmost major city, Kaliningrad, to its easternmost, Vladivostok, as "a dream."
As far as space travel is concerned, Putin told students that there is hope for life on other planets in our Solar System.
"The flight to Mars would take no less than half a year, maybe even more," Putin said. "If you fly to Mars and buried yourself somewhere in there, then you could exist for some period of time. But you have to dig yourself in because cells simply die on the surface," he warned pupils.
Also at the New York Post and VOA.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Monday September 04 2017, @02:36AM (2 children)
War might not even be the right word for it. It could be virtual occupation. Drones bombing targets in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Syria, and other countries. Multiple times every day of the year. No G.I. boots touching the ground. The cost of entry will be too high for most, so you can't call it a war. It will be a one-sided slaughter. Not far off from what we have today, but with even less human cost on one side. These drones aren't likely to fight Russian and Chinese drones just yet. They are likely to slaughter fighters and civilians in Asia and Africa.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 04 2017, @04:31PM (1 child)
Russia has been doing the war-for-conquest thing lately. China seems like they might want to, but are holding back for the most part.
But war like you describe (still legally war, even though the US never declares it) is even worse than the scenario I presented. It highly incentivizes war-for-conquest, creating massive displacements. In that scenario, the human cost goes _way_ up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 04 2017, @04:58PM
China's only holding back because their opponents are big and nuclear (US/Japan and India, and Russia isn't exactly a major historical ally). They're constantly pushing the boundaries to try and push the limits out as far as possible. Since they're not willing to stop doing this, there'll be a misjudgment at some point down the line, and then things will get really ugly.