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He created Oculus headsets as a teenager, now he makes AI weapons for Ukraine

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Re: He created Oculus headsets as a teenager, now he makes AI weapons for Ukraine

#81

Post by nradov »

Pfhortune wrote: post #43
foxyv wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mechanized warfare has been a thing for generations now. What is the difference between AI and a pressure switch? AI can choose to NOT kill the 13 year old playing football in the field 5 years later.

Also a bad idea, and if I understand correctly, landmines are already considered a war crime if not removed after conflict. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Certain_Conventi...

Ukraine stopped the Russian invasion and turned the war into a stalemate primarily through widespread use of land mines. The chance that those will all be removed after the conflict is approximately zero. Many of them were artillery delivered so no one even knows exactly where they landed. No one cares about war crimes when their own survival is at stake.

Re: He created Oculus headsets as a teenager, now he makes AI weapons for Ukraine

#83

Post by karaterobot »

nradov wrote: post #82
karaterobot wrote: post #77

> However, in this emerging industry of AI weapons, critics say a lot of bugs still need to be worked out. The 21st century is shaping up to be pretty terrifying.

More terrifying than the 13th century?

Wasn't around back then, can't say for sure.

Re: He created Oculus headsets as a teenager, now he makes AI weapons for Ukraine

#84

Post by gaadd33 »

ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #65
MilStdJunkie wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A company like Google (or Apple for that matter), with their own freewheeling project systems, would rather jump into an olympic pool filled with razor blades and used condoms before taking any amount of money from the hellish morass that is the defense procurement system. The instant you enter the MIC, kiss goodbye to any of your internal business systems - you will be re-writing the way you work every second of eve…

Agreed on defense procurement revenue vs their current revenue streams. But they are given national-level amounts of resources (eg gigawatts for their data centers). In a wartime footing that would go away unless they re-oriented to serve common effort.

I thought Google purchased things like gigawatts for their data centers on the open market? Can you link to something that shows its bring give to them from the government for free?

Re: He created Oculus headsets as a teenager, now he makes AI weapons for Ukraine

#87

Post by archagon »

renewiltord wrote: post #24

This guy is great. Companies like Anduril are what we need to protect America in the next war. Defense procurement has eaten us alive and made a relatively ineffective fighting force. We need to be capable of creating liberty ships again. And the UAV and USV tech that Anduril pioneers will hopefully lead to a bunch of copycat companies that push low cost weaponry. High production wins wars. We did it last time. We ju…

Ah, the glorious peace of Vietnam and Iraq. I can’t wait for us to be “protected” by more unhinged violence against some far-off nation.

Re: He created Oculus headsets as a teenager, now he makes AI weapons for Ukraine

#88

Post by more_corn »

nradov wrote: post #13
DolphinAsa wrote: post #4

AI weapons seems like a bad bad idea.

Why?

Because drones are overpowered. So the defenders jam. Which means the drones can still fly but can’t be controlled. So they need a pre-programmed target. But things move around on the battlefield so drones need to track. The step from that to automatically identify enemy troops and kill them is just a hop and a skip away. Drones have proven to be the key differentiator in Ukraine. They’ll be important for the next few conflicts (till we’re fighting with sticks and stones again) and they’ll be more effective the smarter they are. Necessity is the mother of invention, we don’t know who the father is, but war blew through here nine months ago and the way they looked at each other oughta tell you somethin.

Re: He created Oculus headsets as a teenager, now he makes AI weapons for Ukraine

#89

Post by rendx »

ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #80
AlexandrB wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then what are you saying? If I as an individual don't want to "work with the national security community", that's my right. If they want to compel me to do so, they have to go through the judicial system and get a warrant. At what organizational size should a corporation be "brought to heel" and the right to refuse to do something for the government (without sufficient legal reason) go away?

Many (most? all?) nation-states have compulsory service, either triggered in a "draft" or always ongoing (e.g. all young people serve in some way after high school). So no, I don't believe that you as an individual have the right to not work with your nation's national security apparatus, regardless of where you reside. You may think this is only for young people but I think that's just been typical practice/need, no…

> Many (most? all?) nation-states have compulsory service

"The following 113 countries and territories have been identified as having no enforced conscription"

"The following fifteen countries have been identified as having a civilian, unarmed or non-combatant service optional alternative to compulsory military service"

"The following 19 countries have been identified as having no defense forces or as having no standing army but having very limited military forces"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_service

Re: He created Oculus headsets as a teenager, now he makes AI weapons for Ukraine

#90

Post by rendx »

ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #29

(American here) I don't know anything about Palmer Luckey or Anduril, but I do believe in a strong national defense. As an individual, I can do approximately zero to stop weapons from being used for offense, rather than defense. That is wildly unfortunate and tragic, but (false dichotomy incoming) I would choose that path for my country 100% of the time over being under-armed. "The strong do what they will while the…

If it was really all about non-lethal defense, weapons would look a lot different, and many current weapons would simply be banned, with anyone owning or employing such weapons getting forced -- by non-lethal force -- to give them up.
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