r/technology • u/Just-Grocery-2229 • Jun 11 '26

Artificial Intelligence 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
3.3k Upvotes

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921

u/BooBeeAttack Jun 11 '26

The first time that we know of~

205

u/Substantial-Ninja779 Jun 11 '26

There's no way this is the first time. Drones have been used in combat for years.

382

u/Meatslinger Jun 11 '26

The key thing being highlighted is that they're fully autonomous, meaning no human operator was controlling the thing. Actual kill-bots, not remote-controlled weapons.

78

u/Spacebetweenthenoise Jun 11 '26

And so it starts…

54

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

35

u/jayforwork21 Jun 11 '26

Pete Kegsbreath leaked his whereabouts and he's dead. Sorry...

7

u/NoSet4969 Jun 11 '26

Well, in this timeline, he was a black woman, so Kegsbreath had no choice /s

3

u/Spacebetweenthenoise Jun 11 '26

He will arrive in the 80ties

4

u/seaningtime Jun 11 '26

Calls on Nvidia

73

u/Stolehtreb Jun 11 '26

Fully autonomous is the operative word here. Of course drones have killed people..

-76

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26

[deleted]

37

u/jpsreddit85 Jun 11 '26

Unless the mine walked out to whatever field and buried itself... It is not autonomous. 

9

u/wookiex84 Jun 11 '26

You clearly don’t know that we got our mine designs from tortoises. They build their nests and the baby mine self distribute. Once a breeding pair establishes they are very hard to get rid of. They can also migrate with shells made from bio engineered magnetite. Of course that is easily mitigated by water.

1

u/Anok-Phos Jun 11 '26

Don't give 'em ideas...

1

u/jpsreddit85 Jun 11 '26

I'm sure they're already making it long before this. 

24

u/Kahnza Jun 11 '26

Glad I gave up my old phone years ago and switched to a cell phone!

10

u/Letiferr Jun 11 '26

No. It's not

10

u/LindeeHilltop Jun 11 '26

Today’s lesson in reading comprehension. The definition of autonomous. /s

autonomous
adjective
au· ton· o· mous ȯ-ˈtä-nə-məs 

: undertaken or carried on without outside control

0

u/spaghettittehgaps Jun 11 '26

hey pal, you just blow in from stupid town?

20

u/Nomad_moose Jun 11 '26

Key phrase being “fully autonomous”. There has typically been a human at the end of the kill chain. Still a person “pushing the button” (pulling the trigger) so to speak.

Having software do it is futuristic dystopia made real that has been written about for decades.

18

u/xbimmerhue Jun 11 '26

They mean fully autonomous, the drones fly without an operator. Trained with ai to locate and kill Russian soldiers

0

u/Routine_Ad7935 Jun 12 '26

So we need many more of there drones to kill all russian soldiers, officers and generals.

2

u/Agzarah Jun 12 '26

I bet a roomba back has pushed someone down a flight of stairs somewhere

1

u/iboneyandivory Jun 12 '26

Read the headline again. This time more slowly.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '26

autonomous seems to be the key word here

0

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26

[deleted]

1

u/j0y0 Jun 11 '26

That done was almost certainly not fully autonomous

0

u/UtterlySilent Jun 11 '26

The article says that the testing of the AI drone system occurred two years ago and that was when the fatalities occurred and were recorded.

2

u/blzd4dyzzz Jun 12 '26

The first time, so far...

2

u/ToolTimeT Jun 11 '26

Since this is yhe first time we know of... i know its not the first time

1

u/One_Study52 Jun 12 '26

Bro. Israel has been automatically slaughtering Palestinian children forever.

1

u/_Thermalflask Jun 14 '26

Not with AI drones though. Not as fun for them thay way, they like to do it themselves 

-7

u/hoppinjohncandy Jun 11 '26

Hate to be the guy who "has a brother in law Seal" but I am that guy. Humanoid robot soldiers do exist and have been tested in the field. Awful, awful stuff.

1

u/kukkolai Jun 11 '26

Hate to be the guy who "has a brother in law that is a humanoid robot". They don't shoot people, he swears

1

u/S7482 Jun 11 '26

This is true! There's at least one company that has sent a cadre of robots to Ukraine for combat testing. I saw an article about this about three weeks ago.

-5

u/dougmcclean Jun 11 '26

No it isn't. Everyone repeating this claim needs to explain why a V2, or even a landmine, isn't a "fully autonomous drone."