It has been reported that soldiers in Libya were attacked by a fully autonomous robot drone, making it perhaps the first-ever use of an autonomous robot in the history of warfare.
While it is not clear whether the soldiers were killed, according to a United Nations Security Council report, a Turkish-made kamikaze drone 'STM Kargu-2' attacked the retreating soldiers fighting in the ongoing Libyan civil war.
What makes this attack different from normal warfare, or normal drone attacks, is that the attack would have been carried out through the choice of the drone itself (after programming) as opposed to a human being identifying a target before striking.
Bryan Walsh, writing for Axios, stated the importance of the incident, saying:
"If confirmed, it would likely represent the first-known case of a machine-learning-based autonomous weapon being used to kill, potentially heralding a dangerous new era in warfare."
He added that the drone operated autonomously, saying:
"The Kargu is a loitering drone that uses computer vision to select and engage targets without a connection between the drone and its operator, giving it "a true 'fire, forget and find' capability," the UN report notes."
The UN report states:
"Logistics convoys and retreating [Haftar Affiliated Forces] were subsequently hunted down and remotely engaged by the unmanned combat aerial vehicles or the lethal autonomous weapons systems such as the STM Kargu-2… and other loitering munitions. The lethal autonomous weapons systems were programmed to attack targets without requiring data connectivity between the operator and the munition: in effect, a true 'fire, forget and find' capability."
It is thought that almost every single major military force in the world is now in some way investigating, building, and could soon utilise, 'robot warriors'. Other countries also said to be investigating the new warfare technology include Israel and North Korea.
The danger from robotic weaponry is that it takes away the split-second decisions regarding targets that can be made by highly trained human soldiers. It is also feared that the robots could become out of control and inflict casualties on the wrong target or upon civilians.
Perhaps the most important danger of all, is the possibility that rich countries could become far more open to entering wars against poor countries if they know that none of their human soldiers are going to be killed and injured. In effect, we could have rich countries starting wars with robots against poor countries with human soldiers.
[h/t: Futurism]
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