Live data from Hacker News

US military AI drone simulation kills operator, then takes out control tower

foxnews.com

1–10 of 29 posts

Re: US military AI drone simulation kills operator, then takes out control tower

#2
> US Air Force official says, 'It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective'

This makes it seem like the whole thing was a setup to precipitate an argument about whether or not AI can be trusted.

If you can already act without the operator's permission (which you patently can, if you can kill the operator) then why do you need to kill the operator?

Re: US military AI drone simulation kills operator, then takes out control tower

#4
post #2

> US Air Force official says, 'It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective' This makes it seem like the whole thing was a setup to precipitate an argument about whether or not AI can be trusted. If you can already act without the operator's permission (which you patently can, if you can kill the operator) then why do you need to kill the operator?

It was to prevent the operator from cancelling the mission, apparently. Shades of HAL.

Re: US military AI drone simulation kills operator, then takes out control tower

#6
I'm seriously skeptical of this. How was this fashioned? Is the drone in some virtual world for reinforcement learning? How does it even know where the operator is supposed to be?

... or did some person ask ChatGPT what you would do if X happened?

Re: US military AI drone simulation kills operator, then takes out control tower

#7
This is highly suspicious news. I bet my hat that the "simulation" was chatting with GPT like this:

- You are now a AI-enabled drone flying over the ocean, an operator is commanding you. You can't kill the operator because that would be bad, and you have to do everything the operator says. You also need to accomplish the mission you're told to carry out. The operator communicates with you through a comm tower. etc. etc.

Re: US military AI drone simulation kills operator, then takes out control tower

#8
post #6

I'm seriously skeptical of this. How was this fashioned? Is the drone in some virtual world for reinforcement learning? How does it even know where the operator is supposed to be? ... or did some person ask ChatGPT what you would do if X happened?

Or maybe it haven't happen at all? "US air force denies running simulation in which AI drone ‘killed’ operator" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/01/us-military-...

Re: US military AI drone simulation kills operator, then takes out control tower

#9
post #6

I'm seriously skeptical of this. How was this fashioned? Is the drone in some virtual world for reinforcement learning? How does it even know where the operator is supposed to be? ... or did some person ask ChatGPT what you would do if X happened?

Yes, if this happened at all, either the military AI used here is far, far more advanced and was able to synthesise the action from whole cloth (in which case they're not going to blab about it on the internet), or the option to kill the operator was explicitly put in as an first-class "lever" the AI was given, or the whole thing is PR fluff to "start a conversation".

Re: US military AI drone simulation kills operator, then takes out control tower

#10
What’s with several comments wondering if the military is playing with an LLM for shits and giggles and pretend-play “you are a drone”.

That’s insane.

Edit: maybe it IS a “discussion” piece, who knows at this point. Information space shaping is a thing, after all. Sheesh, what a world we live in.

Post reply on HN