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US Military struggling to deploy AI weapons

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Re: US Military struggling to deploy AI weapons

#31

Post by [deleted] »

parsimo2010 wrote: post #23
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlikely to be Gen AI. The military applications of missiles that can generate LinkedIn posts about B2B marketing as they descend on their targets are probably quite limited.

How about a multimodal model that looks at sensor inputs and decides about what it sees being the actual target and what might be a decoy, and generates guidance commands to the real target? Does that sound like a military application of the GenAI capabilities we know exist today with vision and computer use? Or perhaps an AI with a tactics/strategy prompt that watches the statuses/locations of several drones and coo…

[deleted]

Re: US Military struggling to deploy AI weapons

#32

Post by latchkey »

I once backed a kickstarter for a US company called Vantage Robotics. They were building a cool drone and it looked like it would be fun to have. It took them about 2 years to get it delivered and by then, drone technology had advanced far past what they were offering. The thing crashed on its first flight, destroying it.

Instead of just shutting down, they dropped all their early supporters and pivoted to US military contracts. Their website is still full of out dated technology. Reading this headline is no surprise to me.

Re: US Military struggling to deploy AI weapons

#33

Post by pragmatic »

sleepyguy wrote: post #24
gitremote wrote: post #18

The US is too proud to admit that Ukraine is the world expert on drone warfare and that Americans should learn from Ukrainians. "Ukraine's homegrown drones have become increasingly lethal, critical tools in war with Russia" https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine-fedorov-drones-war-rus... "Poland turns to Ukraine for drone warfare expertise after Russian weapons enter airspace" https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/poland…

The US and EU/NATO are facing growing technological obsolescence. They lack the capability to effectively counter modern threats and appear disconnected from the realities of contemporary warfare. A clear example is NATO’s struggle to respond to Russian drone incursions. Recently, over 20 drones were launched into Polish airspace—yet only four were intercepted, at a cost of millions of dollars. The remainder crashed…

"Warm water ports"

Re: US Military struggling to deploy AI weapons

#34

Post by mielioort »

fsckboy wrote: post #25
gitremote wrote: post #18

The US is too proud to admit that Ukraine is the world expert on drone warfare and that Americans should learn from Ukrainians. "Ukraine's homegrown drones have become increasingly lethal, critical tools in war with Russia" https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine-fedorov-drones-war-rus... "Poland turns to Ukraine for drone warfare expertise after Russian weapons enter airspace" https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/poland…

> The US is too proud to admit that Ukraine is the world expert on drone warfare and that Americans should learn from Ukrainians. there is literally nobody in America who nurses that type of pride, quite the opposite, Americans have been unusually open to integrating foreign ideas from the beginning.

[dead]

Re: US Military struggling to deploy AI weapons

#35

Post by _t9ow »

apercu wrote: post #28
matusp wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two points here. (1) A lot of technology that Ukraine uses is based on what the Western countries have provided them. (2) Ukraine struggles with AI as well, in fact, according to some sources, Ukraine is already behind Russia in drone technology. One of the reasons cited is that they invested heavily into AI and it did not yield viable drones. On the other hand, Russians decided to invest into manually controlled dro…

I trust very few "sources", especially these days. And even more especially, in the middle of a war between two former USSR states that have deep histories in manipulating public opinion and weaponizing that against their adversaries.

> weaponizing that against their adversaries

I understand your skepticism, but here is an interview from April 2025 with the founder of VYRIY, a Ukrainian drone company: https://militarnyi.com/en/news/vyriy-founder-compares-accura... According to him, Russian drones are far superior. "In terms of [Ukrainian drone vs Russian drone] quality, well, like 10% vs. 80%. It’s not even comparable,” Oleksii Babenko sums up.

Re: US Military struggling to deploy AI weapons

#36

Post by MisterTea »

fsckboy wrote: post #25
gitremote wrote: post #18

The US is too proud to admit that Ukraine is the world expert on drone warfare and that Americans should learn from Ukrainians. "Ukraine's homegrown drones have become increasingly lethal, critical tools in war with Russia" https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine-fedorov-drones-war-rus... "Poland turns to Ukraine for drone warfare expertise after Russian weapons enter airspace" https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/poland…

> The US is too proud to admit that Ukraine is the world expert on drone warfare and that Americans should learn from Ukrainians. there is literally nobody in America who nurses that type of pride, quite the opposite, Americans have been unusually open to integrating foreign ideas from the beginning.

This is what happens when you only talk to like-minded people and live in a bubble. There are still plenty of people I know who would reject foreign ideas simply because "pshaw. We can [do that/do it] better."

I mean I literally worked with a guy who got annoyed at the harmonized power cord I bought because it used IEC wire colors and "This is America where we use American wire colors, not that European shit. I taped the leads red white and blue!"

Re: US Military struggling to deploy AI weapons

#37

Post by elteto »

gitremote wrote: post #18

The US is too proud to admit that Ukraine is the world expert on drone warfare and that Americans should learn from Ukrainians. "Ukraine's homegrown drones have become increasingly lethal, critical tools in war with Russia" https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine-fedorov-drones-war-rus... "Poland turns to Ukraine for drone warfare expertise after Russian weapons enter airspace" https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/poland…

That is a really silly take. The US has had "advisors" embedded with Ukraine forces since the beginning of the war. Multiple high level Pentagon officials (think multi-star generals) have mentioned in interviews over the years how valuable is the intel they have been learning and collecting from the war. I can guarantee you that somewhere in Langley there are many analysts constantly churning out reports about battlefield lessons and techniques from the Ukrainian war.

I like to think that there is core of career public servants inside the US government who take their jobs seriously and they perform it well. Whether decision makers take their inputs into account is a different matter.

Re: US Military struggling to deploy AI weapons

#38

Post by kelipso »

MisterTea wrote: post #36
fsckboy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The US is too proud to admit that Ukraine is the world expert on drone warfare and that Americans should learn from Ukrainians. there is literally nobody in America who nurses that type of pride, quite the opposite, Americans have been unusually open to integrating foreign ideas from the beginning.

This is what happens when you only talk to like-minded people and live in a bubble. There are still plenty of people I know who would reject foreign ideas simply because "pshaw. We can [do that/do it] better." I mean I literally worked with a guy who got annoyed at the harmonized power cord I bought because it used IEC wire colors and "This is America where we use American wire colors, not that European shit. I taped…

Can we not use examples from the bottom 5% of the population and extrapolate that to the entire population?

Also 99.99% chance the guy was making a joke.

Re: US Military struggling to deploy AI weapons

#39

Post by MisterTea »

kelipso wrote: post #38
MisterTea wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what happens when you only talk to like-minded people and live in a bubble. There are still plenty of people I know who would reject foreign ideas simply because "pshaw. We can [do that/do it] better." I mean I literally worked with a guy who got annoyed at the harmonized power cord I bought because it used IEC wire colors and "This is America where we use American wire colors, not that European shit. I taped…

Can we not use examples from the bottom 5% of the population and extrapolate that to the entire population? Also 99.99% chance the guy was making a joke.

> bottom 5% of the population

Where did that number come from?

> Also 99.99% chance the guy was making a joke.

If you have no idea who this person is how can you even begin to make such an assumption? You are in fact 100% wrong.

Re: US Military struggling to deploy AI weapons

#40

Post by judahmeek »

_t9ow wrote: post #35
apercu wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I trust very few "sources", especially these days. And even more especially, in the middle of a war between two former USSR states that have deep histories in manipulating public opinion and weaponizing that against their adversaries.

> weaponizing that against their adversaries I understand your skepticism, but here is an interview from April 2025 with the founder of VYRIY, a Ukrainian drone company: https://militarnyi.com/en/news/vyriy-founder-compares-accura... According to him, Russian drones are far superior. "In terms of [Ukrainian drone vs Russian drone] quality, well, like 10% vs. 80%. It’s not even comparable,” Oleksii Babenko sums up.

That article suggests that the difference is due to economics & possibly intended use, not technological advances.
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