‘Real life terminator’ AI robots managed by Putin slaughter Ukrainian civilians
A drone fitted with an experimental AI system reportedly chose its own target autonomously at a gas station in Zaporizhzhia, killing three people — including a 19-year-old student
Three were killed in the attack (file)(Image: AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Russian drones guided by artificial intelligence – just like the Terminator – have killed three Ukrainian civilians.
Tetiana Bubynets, 19, a university student, and two others were killed month at a petrol station in the city of Zaporizhzhia by a drone fitted with an experimental artificial intelligence system that decides, without a human operator, where to strike, the New York Times reported.
The drone, which resembled a model aeroplane, was programmed to fly towards the petrol station, but once it approached, an AI system independently selected its target – most likely propane tanks – based on its training to identify such objects, experts and military officials told the paper.
A Ukrainian FP-1 long-range attack drone is launched(Image: AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
“This is a risk for the whole world,” said Colonel Serhiy Minaiev, the commander of Ukrainian air defences in Zaporizhzhia. “In a few years, we will be living in a ‘Terminator’ movie. It’s no joke. Machines are making decisions to strike.”
Debris retrieved from the petrol station and other strike sites around the city revealed that the drones were running on Nvidia minicomputers that determined where the drone would detonate, officials and experts said.
Nvidia produces the majority of the chips powering the world’s most advanced AI systems and confirmed that the module found in the drone was a Jetson Orin minicomputer, a low-cost system that has been found on other Russian weapons, according to The Times.
The AI system circuit from Nvidia that was used in Russian drones(Image: Defence Intelligence of Ukraine)
Nvidia described the system as a consumer-grade product available for students, developers and start-ups “for a wide range of beneficial applications.”
Nvidia sells the computer in several countries but not in Russia – although it’s broadly accessible via resellers.
The July 6 gas station attack would be the first documented case in which self-targeting AI Russian drones caused civilian deaths. The presence of an Nvidia module “is the best proof” that Russia has been experimenting with autonomous AI on the battlefield, she said.
