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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday July 18 2017, @05:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-could-possibly-go-wrong dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Recently, Russian arms manufacturer Kalashnikov Concern has unveiled their work on a fully automated combat machine. It looks like a drone, but the neural network that controls it allows for some autonomous ability, which is going to make for some very interesting conversation at the upcoming ARMY-2017 forum. Did somebody say war robots?

For that matter, now that neural networks are basically being weaponized, I'm sure there will be some important moral debates about their use in a field of battle. Not the least of which will be: "Isn't this exactly what Skynet wants?"

But, and we've said this many times before, technology is a tool.

It isn't inherently good or bad; that depends entirely on the intentions of the user. In this case, the technology is a weapon, but that is the purview of a military, and I think we can judge them according to their actions instead of their tech.

Plus, the robot is really freaking cool. We'd be doing it a disservice by ignoring that. Let's take a closer look.

We all know that drones are already used in combat, but this robot is no drone.

Drones require operators, and while modern drones do have elements that can acquire targets without human control, they aren't fully autonomous. By using a neural network to control the drone, full autonomy is possible.

So far, there's no word on whether the module will fire without human authorization. What information we do have suggests that the use of a neural network is intended to quickly acquire many targets–something well within the capabilities of modern AI technology.

Source: https://edgylabs.com/war-robots-automated-kalashnikov-neural-network-gun/


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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 20 2017, @02:05PM (2 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday July 20 2017, @02:05PM (#541909)

    Well, that's not hand axes vs short swords and farmers vs occasional soldiers. The Romans were full-time soldiers with generations of development behind their tactics and equipment. Similarly, GWI put a small US force against "much greater numbers, on their home soil" and the results were just sad for the larger army.

    And, to counterpoint the king in front: the Romans certainly didn't put the emperor in front, and with their training they didn't need much of a big leader in front, either.

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  • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday July 20 2017, @03:22PM (1 child)

    by Thexalon (636) on Thursday July 20 2017, @03:22PM (#541931)

    Roman emperors did occasionally find themselves in the front, and a few were KIA. Julius Caesar definitely claimed he was in the fray on multiple occasions.

    Culture definitely played a role: a Celtic or Norse king who wasn't near the front lines would likely be branded a coward and lose his support. Also, sometimes kings fought on the front lines more due to necessity than anything else. Alfred the Great and Robert the Bruce are two examples of this: When you're fighting with only a few dozen guys, and there's no way to accept defeat without being killed, you do what you have to.

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    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 20 2017, @04:28PM

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday July 20 2017, @04:28PM (#541967)

      When you're fighting with only a few dozen guys, and there's no way to accept defeat without being killed, you do what you have to.

      Like StarCraft ;-) Though, I sincerely wish you could somehow train the units to micromanage themselves - even if it's at cost of battle experience or something, it's just annoying to have to do some of those obvious things on a unit by unit basis.

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