AI Targeted Drones Are Not Working
Both Russia and Ukraine had deployed small drones that used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to identify and to focus in on potential enemy targets, however, analysis of their current actual performance on the battlefield indicates they are inferior to human operators.
Using AI has meant that the drones, versions of the Russian Lancet and the Ukrainian Saker Scout, wouldn’t need a human operator to guide them all the way to impact. But now a detailed report from the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) dismisses the military effectiveness of these AI drones.
“The Lancet-3 was advertised as having autonomous target identification and engagement, although these claims are unverified... Both parties claim to be using Artificial Intelligence to improve the drone’s ability to hit its target, but likely its use is limited.” according the the CNAS report.
Electronic warfare systems are designed to disrupt the operator’s control link, or worse, trace the transmission to its source for a precision strike, would have been largely useless against self-guided drones.
Has these AI drones proved more effective, it would have been a revolution in the use of deadly autonomous weapons.
Skilled drone operators are in short supply could have been replaced by thousands of conscripts quickly trained to point-and-click on potential targets. Instead of every drone requiring an operator staring at its video feed full-time, a single human could have overseen a swarm of lethal machines.
Military AI would have taken a terrifying step towards independence from human control, however after months of frontline field-testing, neither Ukraine nor Russia’s AI-augmented drones seem to have made any measurable impact.
While access to Russian military documents or their AI drone’s performance data is not available, it does appear from the CNAS analysis of the Ukraine's' AI drones, that they are are not working in the way that was anticipated.
CNAS | Breaking Defense | Bloomberg | Washington Post | Defence Blog |
Image: Diana Măceşanu
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