Libyan Fighters Attacked by a Potentially Unaided Drone, U.N. Says (Skynet, is that you?)

[Nevilledog]

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Betsy Woodruff Swan
@woodruffbets
"the report suggested that for the first time, a weapons systems with artificial intelligence capability operated autonomously to find and attack humans"
Soldiers loyal to Khalifa Hifter, a Libyan militia leader. His forces have been in a yearslong civil war with the government in Tripoli.

Libyan Fighters Attacked by a Potentially Unaided Drone, U.N. Says
A United Nations report suggested that a drone, used against militia fighters in Libya’s civil war, may have selected a target autonomously.
nytimes.com
9:42 AM · Jun 3, 2021

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/03/world/africa/libya-drone.html

A military drone that attacked soldiers during a battle in Libya’s civil war last year may have done so without human control, according to a recent report commissioned by the United Nations.

The drone, which the report described as “a lethal autonomous weapons systems,” was powered by artificial intelligence and used by forces backed by the government based in Tripoli, the capital, against enemy militia fighters as they ran away from rocket attacks.

The fighters “were hunted down and remotely engaged by the unmanned combat aerial vehicles or the lethal autonomous weapons systems,” according to the report, which did not say whether there were any casualties or injuries.

The weapons systems, it said, “were programmed to attack targets without requiring data connectivity between the operator and the munition: in effect a true ‘fire, forget and find’ capability.”

*snip*

[bluedigger]

1. I read about this in Esquire last night.

Not good.

The world’s first recorded case of an autonomous drone attacking humans took place in March 2020, according to a United Nations (UN) security report detailing the ongoing Second Libyan Civil War. Libyan forces used the Turkish-made drones to “hunt down” and jam retreating enemy forces, preventing them from using their own drones.

The field report (via New Scientist) describes how the Haftar Affiliated Forces (HAF), loyal to Libyan Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, came under attack by drones from the rival Government of National Accord (GNA) forces. After a successful drive against HAF forces, the GNA launched drone attacks to press its advantage. From the report:

Logistics convoys and retreating HAF 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 (above) 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.

The report says Turkey supplied the drones to Libyan forces, which is a violation of a UN arms embargo slapped on combatants in the conflict.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a36607184/drones-autonomously-attacked-humans-libya-united-nations-report/

[Baitball Blogger]

2. Well, that answers a question I've had for a long time.

Terminator's Judgment Day begins more like a crawl, than a bang.

[CentralMass]

3. Frightening stuff.

[NightWatcher]

4. There's a schoolbus w/ 30 passengers and a troop transport w/20 a mile apart

Does it "know" that one has kids or does it see that one has 20 targets and the other has 30 and decide to his the more rich target?