When Guns And AI Work Together
In the long-running debate about gun control legislation guns have been characterized as “dumb” tools. They simply do what they are told. But as with smart lamps, TV and smart cars, technology is making guns a lot more intelligent.
Military firearms are a simple extension of previous technology; first we threw rocks. Then we used slings to send them further. We developed bows and arrows to deliver more force. Then we harnessed fire to make the first guns. Technology is ushering in the next phase, and it’s fascinating and worrying.
Take TrackingPoint, for example; the Austin-based company builds rifles that use scopes powered by Angstrom Linux distribution software to increase accuracy out to 1,000 yards by performing complex ballistic calculations.
The scopes make shooting a gun more like a first person shooter video; targets can be tagged by the scope and will be followed by a red dot; after the trigger is pulled, the gun will fire when the scope’s crosshair and the dot are aligned.
The scope takes environmental and ballistic factors into account when calculating the trajectory of the bullet, making each shot significantly more accurate than traditional human-aimed shots. Because ballistic factors are used to predict the path of the bullet, certain ammunition must be used with the TrackingPoint guns to ensure that all of the properties of the bullets are known.
While TrackingPoint is currently building guns mostly for hunters and gun aficionados with expensive tastes (the magnum rifles start at $22,500), they are doing some work with the US military, which has already started deploying another smart weapon, the XM-25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement system. The XM-25 fires 25mm explosive shells with high accuracy up to 500 meters and “area effect” to 700. A laser rangefinder, a powerful computer-enhanced scope, and the ability to select the detonation range of the shells contributed to the XM-25’s nickname of “the Punisher.”
The weapon has proven to be very effective in supporting troops that are pinned down by enemy machine gun fire, as the shells can be set to explode once they fly over an enemy’s cover. The capability of the launcher to provide airbursts like this sets it apart from conventional weapons, and puts it in a new class; something like highly portable artillery.
DARPA has also developed a .50 caliber sniper bullet that can make course corrections mid-flight.
In March, Russia announced that they’d be deploying tracked robots to defend a number of their missile bases; these robots are armed with 12.7-mm heavy machine guns, and can engage targets without any human intervention (unlike current US military drones, which required an actual person to pull the trigger).
However, it seems likely that the US will eventually join Russia and other countries in building fully autonomous weapons platforms, despite UN debate over whether or not robots should be banned from combat. But with DARPA’s annual Robotics Challenge, it’s clear that the US military is interested in further developing the field of robotics for its own ends.
While it seems unlikely that we’ll be seeing humanoid robots patrolling army bases or replacing soldiers anytime soon, the high-profile deployment by Russia does make US and international deployment of autonomous lethal robots seem inevitable.
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