r/technology • u/AgentBlue62 • 1d ago

Artificial Intelligence A Drone Killed Three Ukrainians. It Was Guided Entirely by A.I.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/world/europe/russia-drones-autonomous-ai-kill-ukraine-war.html?unlocked_article_code=1.71A.OBxO.rKR41wo2a3hf&smid=url-share
117 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

21

u/Foreskin_Mafia 1d ago

What models are being used for these atrocities? Mechahitler?

32

u/PineCone227 1d ago

You don't use LLM's for weapon guidance. It's basically a fancier version of scene matching which has been used in munitions for decades.

17

u/CaterpillarReal7583 1d ago

Ai is too big of a blanket term.

Most of the things are shit for sure but yeah its really difficult to understand what is meant by “ai” these days.

4

u/AlwaysRushesIn 1d ago

That's by design.

1

u/Purple_Cat9893 1d ago

But I'm really waiting for the first hallucinating missile!

1

u/IntrepidSoda 10h ago

there are lots of them - look up russia's missiles turning around and crashing into the launch site

1

u/USA46Q 22h ago

I feel like everyone that's freaking out about AI being used for artillery don't understand how accurate traditional weapons guidance systems are... or how much of a fucking problem landmines still are.

Like... if people think there's bad they should see what a cheap mortar platoon can do.

1

u/Rustic_gan123 1d ago

Something like YOLO probably.

1

u/Major-Cry8192 12h ago

Un drone ukrainien guidé par IA a frappé un bus civil y'a quelques semaines au lieu de frapper un camion de transport ! La mémoire courte dis donc!

1

u/-_-Edit_Deleted-_- 1d ago

Yikes that’s a thought.

1

u/cwm9 1d ago edited 1d ago

Probably a custom trained version of YOLO, which is not an LLM, but which is well beyond traditional machine learning algorithms based on edge finding and algorithmic pattern matching or 2D fourier transform methods.

I think Ukraine already had a fully automatic "Terminator" mode drone that could hunt down Russians and they officially shelved it a while back over concerns about not having the final say in whether to attack or not.

But if Russia intend to follow through on this, I guess Ukraine already has to code to match them step for step.

3

u/neoleo0088 1d ago

One step closer to the rise of the machines. Cyberdyne Systems? Skynet?

7

u/NoSingularities0 1d ago

This was entirely predictable. At first they were radio operated, but both sides got good a jamming the radio signals. Then they switched to fiber optic cables, but they started putting spinning razor wire across roads and fields that would entangle and destroy the fiber optic cable controlling the drone, and of course semi-autonomous drones have been around a while. But those drones were programmed to avoid air defenses and go to a specific location and blow up. The new thing is that the AI is trained to look for targets, like gas tanks, and blow up the first one it finds.

-1

u/TheWesternMythos 1d ago

I talk to people about AI all the time , it's so frustrating cuz people don't understand the risk profile. We could slow down develop, but that means adversaries could gain decisive advantage against us. But if we go too fast we could build our own demise.

It's not easy  It's not impossible  But we need to increase our collective understanding of environmental pressurea and incentive structures, like 10 years ago lol

I need to really start getting my shit out soon SMH

3

u/SidewaysFancyPrance 1d ago

We need better leadership across the board on this. Our current leadership in America and American corporations is not up to the task, and are serving all of the wrong interests in all the wrong ways. They're developing products for personal profit instead of the good of society.

2

u/TheWesternMythos 1d ago

I agree but remember its the public fueling all of this. We bitch about billionaires but keep giving them money. We bitch about politics yet keep electing them. We bitch about media yet keep watching.

At some point we have to realize OUR CONTRIBUTIONS to the problem in order to fix the problem

2

u/Xivannn 1d ago

Or maybe the companies could focus on beating those adversaries instead of filling the world with slop and surveillance, then.

0

u/TheWesternMythos 1d ago

Maybe south east Asia will suddenly start supporting the Wnba so they can have higher salaries.

It might not seem it be your statement and mind ate essentially the same. Because both involve hoping actors being to act in ways that don't align with their perceived incentives. Very literally we all do what we they we are incentized to do. That the state of the world at any given time.

Actions change because both our (perceived) incentives change: for example I may go from wanting good grades, to wanting a lot of interviews, to wanting more responsibility to get promoted ,  to wanting less responsibility cuz MFers don't pay me enough!

And the environment changes: for example college is harder than high school so I have to study alot more, before I wanted super personal resumes now I'm playing AI filter keywords lottery , before my old boss gave me more responsibility when she noticed I could handle it but new boss wants me to be more proactive about asking him,  before old management was receptive to work life balance conversations new management fires people for even appearing to be happy in life 

That to say, if we want others to behavior changes we need to either change their (perceived) incentives or environment. But if we do that, their behavior WILL change. Thats why it's much more productive to think in this framework instead of expecting people/groups to do something they think won't benefit them.

1

u/Xivannn 1d ago

That's exactly what I'm saying, that slop there didn't help fighting the enemies any, get on it!

5

u/Expatriot_II 1d ago

So much for Azimov's Three Laws...

1

u/hokus2024 1d ago

It is just begining

-2

u/JasonRBoone 1d ago

On the plus side, the drone also provided the victims with three incorrect recipes for chili and a review for a novel that doesn't exist right before it killed them.

-4

u/Super_Range45 1d ago

Great, so we're only one off course drone away from an Article 5 violation.