AI ushers in the age of killer robots.

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KYIV, Ukraine — In a field on the outskirts of Kyiv, the founder of Ukrainian drone company Veri was recently working on a weapon of the future.

To demonstrate this, 25-year-old Oleksii Babenko, CEO of Veri, hopped on his motorcycle and rode up a dirt road. A drone followed, as a colleague tracked the movement with a briefcase-sized computer.

Until recently, a human would have piloted a quadcopter. Not anymore. Instead, after the drone closed in on its target – Babenko – it flew on its own, guided by software that used the machine's camera to track it.

The revving motorcycle engine was no match for the silent drone as it followed Babenko.

If the drone had been armed with explosives, and if his colleagues hadn't interrupted the autonomous tracking, Babenko would have been a goner.

Vyriy is one of many Ukrainian companies taking a giant leap into weaponizing consumer technology because of the war with Russia. The push to outrun the enemy, along with a huge flow of investment, donations and government contracts, has turned Ukraine into a Silicon Valley for autonomous drones and other weapons.

What companies are building is technology that makes human decisions about aiming and firing increasingly tangential. The widespread availability of off-the-shelf devices, easy-to-design software, powerful automation algorithms and specialized artificial intelligence microchips has pushed a deadly innovation race into uncharted territory, fueling a potential new era of killer robots. will

The latest versions of the technology that allow drones and other machines to operate autonomously are made possible by deep learning, a form of AI that uses large amounts of data to recognize patterns and make decisions. . Deep learning has helped build popular large language models like OpenAI's GPT-4, but it also helps models interpret and respond to video and camera footage in real time. That means the software that once helped a drone follow a snowboarder down a mountain could now become a deadly tool.

In more than a dozen interviews with Ukrainian businessmen, engineers and military units, a picture emerged of a near-future when self-guided drones could coordinate strikes and machine guns with computer vision could automatically shoot soldiers. are More alien creations, such as hovering unmanned helicopters that fire machine guns, are also being developed.

While these weapons are not as advanced as the expensive military-grade systems developed by the United States, China, and Russia, what makes these developments significant is their low cost—just thousands of dollars or less—and their ready availability. .

In addition to ammunition, many of these weapons are built with code found online and components that can be purchased at Best Buy and hardware stores. Some US officials have said they fear these capabilities could soon be used to carry out terrorist attacks.

For Ukraine, the technologies could provide an edge against Russia, which is also developing autonomous killer gadgets — or simply help it keep pace. These systems contribute to the international debate about the ethical and legal implications of AI on the battlefield. Human rights groups and UN officials want to limit the use of autonomous weapons out of fear that they could start a new global arms race that could spiral out of control.

In Ukraine, such concerns are secondary to fighting an aggressor.

“We need more and more automation,” said Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's minister of digital transformation, who has led the country's efforts to use tech startups to boost modern warfare capabilities. “These technologies are fundamental to our winning.”

Autonomous drones like Vyriy's have already been used in combat to target Russian targets, according to video verified by Ukrainian officials and The New York Times. Federov said the government is working to provide funding to help drone companies ramp up production.

In a cluttered workshop in an apartment building in eastern Ukraine, Giant, a 28-year-old soldier in the 92nd Assault Brigade, has helped push innovations that have turned cheap drones into weapons. First, it strapped bombs to racing drones, then added larger batteries to help them fly farther and recently added night vision so the machines can hunt in the dark.

In May, he was one of the first to use autonomous drones, including Veri's drones. While some improvements are needed, Dev said, he believes they will be the next big technological leaps that will hit the front lines.

Autonomous drones are “already in high demand,” he said. The machines have been particularly helpful against jamming, which can break communication links between the drone and the pilot. With the drone flying itself, a pilot can simply lock on to a target and let the device do the rest.

Makeshift factories and labs have sprung up across Ukraine to build remote-controlled machines of all sizes, from long-range fighter jets and attack boats to cheap kamikaze drones — FPVs, short for first-person view. , because they guide the worn pilot. Virtual reality-like glasses that show the scene from a drone. There are many precursors to machines that will eventually operate on their own.

Efforts to automate FPV flights began last year, but were slowed by failures in building the flight control software, according to Federov, who said those issues have since been resolved. The next step was to scale the technology with more government spending, he said, adding that about 10 companies are already building autonomous drones.

“We already have systems that can be mass-produced, and they are now being widely tested on the front lines, which means they are already operational,” Federov said. are being used as such,” Federov said.

On a hot May afternoon in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, a 23-year-old reservist, Yuriy Klontsk, trained four soldiers to use the latest futuristic weapon: a gun turret with autonomous targeting that works with a PlayStation controller. does. A pill

Discussing the rapidity of close-range fire, Klontsk explained how the gun, called Wolly after its resemblance to the Pixar robot WALL-E, can auto-lock on a target up to 1,000 meters away and has a wide range. Can jump between preset positions to cover area quickly. The weapons company, DevDroid, was also developing an automated aim to track and engage moving targets.

“When I first saw the gun, I was fascinated,” Klontsk said. “I realized that this is the only way, if not to win this war, at least hold your positions.”

The gun is one of several that have emerged on the front lines using AI-trained software to automatically track and shoot targets. Not unlike the object recognition featured in surveillance cameras, an on-screen software surrounds humans and other targets with a digital box. All the shooter has to do is pull the trigger remotely with a video game controller.

Often, the demands of the battlefield bring engineers and soldiers together. Oleksandr Yabchanka, a commander of the Da Vinci Wolves, a battalion known for its weapons innovation, recalled how the “Road of Life” needed to be defended – a route that ran along the eastern front line at Bakhmut to the Russians. was used to supply troops fighting Inventing a solution, he posted an open request on Facebook for a computerized, remote-controlled machine gun.

Within months, Yabchanka received a working prototype from a firm called Ruboners. The gun was almost immediately helpful to his unit.

“We could sit in the trenches and drink coffee and smoke cigarettes and shoot at the Russians,” he said.

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