I tagged this with AI as it will undoubtedly play a role. Without sounding alarmist, isn't this how how so many sci-fi movies start then go so very badly for humanity?
https://en.defence-ua.com/weapon_and_tech/in_two_years_50000_battle_droids_may_replace_some_of_us_army_servicemen-16884.html
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It’s only AI if they are autonomous, and they won’t be. Nobody is rushing to open that Pandora’s Box just yet.
As for what amount to remotely operated robotic soldiers, they’ve been holding the line in Ukraine for years. Sure they don’t look like the Terminator, but conceptually once you’ve got a mobile remotely controlled weapons platform, rather than a munition, it is functionally a combatant.
The Ukrainian ones look like a box on tracks with a machinegun on top. It’s not exactly terrifying to look at but it’ll kill people well enough.
I know this will get a lot of eye roles but this cannot be a good thing. War is to be avoided because of the toll it takes on populations and economies. Sanitizing it with automation on one side of a conflict makes the prospects for war far more appealing for the country deploying the robots.
The obvious concerns around AI being involved and any of this working “autonomously” make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I’m not an alarmist but I’ve spent 50 years writing code and dealing with tech and I don’t trust AI and have seen it fail as many times as it succeeds. Is this a future we want as a society?
Edit: spelling
Do you think the “battle droids” will be humanish? Or like little tanks
The humanoid form is fairly unnecessary for most roles, especially with regards to height which presents a better target. Actual remote control robots used currently in the Ukraine war are just some heavy tracks with a machine gun or other weapon on top. Otherwise you’re looking at FPV drones in the air. None of which looks like people.
Give me a cylon army and I will bring peace to the planet
“height of 1.75 cm, a mass of 80 kg and can carry up to 20 kg of payload”
That’s incredible! They must be made of osmium!
ready in two years, yeah for sure whatever man. I’ll put all my lifesavings into this startup
Old men have always started wars so that younger men can die in their place to preserve their wealth and power.
This is a great first step. The next step would be to cut the rest of us out of paying for their wars too.
And each “battle droid” will cost $20 million and require a 7-man human support team to keep it running/repaired….because it’s the government who is doing this. LOL!!!
Oh 50,000 battle droids you say?
When do they execute order SIx Seven?
Its already starting with Ukraine Russo war with programmable suicide air and sea drones. The next level will possibly be the infantry droids with backup humans armored with exoskeleton battle gear.
I’m going to skip to the end punchline. People will forget how to be soldiers and rely on AI machines for social control. It is not all that great as it sounds. People will become too weak to stand up for anything and instead trust the program. Sentinels and robot are great force enhancers but do not outsource military skills entirely to machines
Terminator lives, idiots all. Hack the bots to turn on the masters. Nothing is un-hackable
Even if that works, do you want terrorism? Because that’s how you get terrorism. Asymmetrical warfare always does.
Whatever features they may have, I hope that they say Roger Roger when receiving orders, and are just as inept at fighting
Now were talking! Fully humanoid robot that carries a (pulse)rifle ,then all we need to do is give it AI and ding ding we have a winner folks! Seems like I saw some silly scifi movie based on that ….think it was called Terminator or something like that!
The article says they could end wars before they start yeah think we all have heard that one before too.
I think we are still many many many years away from something like that. What we have right now are the first baby steps towards this but until the built in AI is capable of doing the most simple tasks reliably … that alone will be at least 10 more years. Then the mechanics need to be durable enough to not need constant maintenance (an acquaintance who works in the field told me about a lot of wear and tear on the larger joints) etc etc. There are so many predictions like this, just like the flying car that is “right around the corner”.
Aaaaand there goes the only middle class job that was “worth” having in america lol
In two years we may achieve world peace, unlimited clean energy or get nuked by aliens. May is the keyword.
a right-wing president will argue that these droids aren’t troops so they are be perfectly legal to be deployed to US cities
the quote goes something like, techbros will come out and proudly say “we built the doomsday device from the story ‘don’t build the doomsday device'”.
Where and how are we going to build 50000 battle droids? America doesn’t have the capability, the resource pipe-lining, or the production expertise to build robotics of that complexity to that quality in those numbers.
This is the only thing that truly worries me about the future. The billionaire class aren’t as smart as they think they are and can’t hookwink humanity forever, but that might not matter if they have a robot army…
All fun and games until the EMPs come out, the BattleBots are reprogrammed and you are now their target, instead of controller. Even the Terminator series grappled with this level of reprogramming. If it’s a machine, it’s an inherent and not theoretical risk. Shown in t3, also Sarah Connor Chronicles. Even if encrypted, you think they won’t just read the memory on that BattleBot? I’d say stick with drones.