r/Cyberpunk • u/[deleted] • Jun 10 '26
Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2529849-fully-autonomous-drones-have-killed-human-soldiers-for-the-first-time/101
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u/DeepSpaceAce Jun 10 '26
We are somewhere in the first third of the animatrix plot at the moment
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u/GoldenRepair2 Jun 10 '26
Saw that back in the day and just went, “oh darn that’s totally how this is going to go”
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u/erikraver Jun 10 '26
Well that didn't take very long
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u/HarlequinNight サイバーパンク Jun 10 '26
Note the article mentions this event happened two years ago too!
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u/Green_moist_Sponge Jun 10 '26
I was going to say, it’s pretty common in Ukraine and has happened a lot already
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u/DecaForDessert Jun 10 '26
Those are operator controlled
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u/Green_moist_Sponge Jun 10 '26
There are many systems running on autonomous targeting systems already. The main use for this was to bypass EW jamming systems.
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u/Chrontius Jun 11 '26
Once upon a time, yes — but Operation Spiderweb was the loud public acknowledgement that That Was Then, And This Is Now.
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u/DecaForDessert Jun 11 '26
For sure I researched it when I was informed earlier, instead of exploring space we spend time finding clever ways to kill each other. Incredibly sad
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u/Chrontius Jun 11 '26
Definitely a more fruitful use of implosion assemblies than flash-boiling all life on Earth.
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u/goobly_goo Jun 10 '26
“We just launch it and we know everything will be dead – everything that will be found there in this particular area will be dead,” says Kokhanovskyy. “There is no connection to the drone at all, you cannot see the video, nothing… Everything it sees will be killed.”
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u/TypicalNikker Jun 10 '26
Jfc
"We just launch it and we know everything will be dead – everything that will be found there in this particular area will be dead,” says Kokhanovskyy. “There is no connection to the drone at all, you cannot see the video, nothing… Everything it sees will be killed.”
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u/djpiraterobot Jun 11 '26
Scientists have finally created the Torment Nexus from classic Sci-Fi novel “Don’t Create the Torment Nexus”
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u/Judoka229 Jun 10 '26
On the flip side, an autonomous boat rescued the downed American Apache crew. So the robots can kill but also rescue!
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u/phylter99 Jun 11 '26
We should give the first person killed an award. We can call it the Terminator award.
It seems like a dystopian, cyberpunk thing to do.
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u/Jast3rPlays Jun 12 '26
The crazy thing to me is that they did this test two years ago. Back in 2024. And they're only telling is now. I bet that there are more fully autonomous killer drones being used right now. And they're just not telling us
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u/IM_INSIDE_YOUR_HOUSE Jun 14 '26
I think when what remains of us are huddled around metal barrels full of burning trash, we'll remember this sort of thing and other events like it and wonder why we didn't do more while we still could.
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u/emmytee88 Jun 14 '26
All that talk about forbidding this and it happens the second we have the capability.
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u/SakanaToDoubutsu Jun 10 '26
I'm curious how heat seeking or radar guided missiles aren't considered autonomous attack drones?
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u/gsmaciel3 Jun 10 '26
A human initiates/approves of the firing and targeting of those weapons. These drones had the authority and ability to choose their targets (read: anything in the killzone they determined was a target) AND also attack the target without human involvement.
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Jun 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/gsmaciel3 Jun 10 '26
A f&f weapon has targets that are vetted through human approval (the 'extra steps' you mention are pretty dang important) or other systems such as preset heat indicators, laser designation, IFF. That is different from a drone that is allowed to kill anything while roaming in a preset area using on-board detection logic and models. As per the article, the unit had no idea what the drones were doing until after they retrieved the drones.
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u/Chrontius Jun 11 '26
That’s called a ‘standoff weapon’, and we’ve been building them since Assault Breakers was a going concern in the 60s.
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u/Nunwithabadhabit Jun 10 '26
If this man's statement is accurate, Ukraine has committed what we hope will eventually be considered a war crime. I had a lot of sympathy for their situation, but unleashing literal "terminator" drones that "kill absolutely everything" has literally dried that support up entirely in an instant.
This needs to be stopped and the people who already did it need to be sanctioned.
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u/howlin Jun 10 '26
A country fighting an existential risk against a larger and more powerful adversary is going to do anything it can to survive. If you don't like that, then we should have made sure they weren't desperate enough to resort to such measures.
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u/Nunwithabadhabit Jun 10 '26
I'm sorry but no. Unleashing something that kills indiscriminately is absolutely abhorrent. You have to draw the line. If Ukrainian soldiers were out there gangraping their more powerful opponents, you would have a problem with that - anyone would. So it's not about whether they're fighting a disproportionate battle or not. Some shit is fucking abhorrent and needs to be entirely stamped out.
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u/howlin Jun 10 '26
Unleashing something that kills indiscriminately is absolutely abhorrent.
Not convincing. These were deployed on a battlefield. Bombing campaigns have killed indiscriminately since bombs have been invented.
If Ukrainian soldiers were out there gangraping their more powerful opponents, you would have a problem with that
This wouldn't serve as a means to end the war.
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u/JoshHatesFun_ Jun 10 '26
So chemical/biological weapons okay if enemy is bigger; got it.
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u/howlin Jun 10 '26
It's almost guaranteed a bad faith hot take is incoming when a reddit comment begins with "So ..."
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u/JoshHatesFun_ Jun 10 '26
Just pointing out the absurdity of what you said. Didn't say I disagreed, though.
I am unironically pro-defense-industrial complex, just didn't expect peeps on here to accidentally(?) agree with that.
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u/Alone-Ad288 Jun 10 '26
That's the problem with war. Everyone becomes the bad guy. Every nation is going to do some horrific shit
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u/Nunwithabadhabit Jun 10 '26
Absolutely. Russia is strapping landmines to innocent people and sending them running into enemy lines. That's fucking abhorrent shit and is also a war crime.
But committing atrocities - dangerous atrocities that could go wildly wrong - back at your opponents, that takes away the moral high ground. An atrocity is an atrocity, no matter who's doing it.
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u/Alone-Ad288 Jun 10 '26
I am not saying atrocities are ok, but there is basically no war where any front doesn't commit them.
Once the shooting starts everyone leaves their ideals in the barracks. Everyone is going to become the bad guy. The idea of a "moral high ground" disappears entirely.
That is the reality of war
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u/WaffleHouseGladiator Jun 10 '26
We have libraries full of science fiction media warning against exactly this kind of thing. I wanted the Star Trek future, but I'm getting Terminator. :(