In November, an organisation to stop autonomous weapons released a video. In it, a fictional spokesman for small, weaponised drones reaches out to grab one that’s hovering nearby. The drone easily evades him. “Hell of a pilot?” asks the man. “No, that skill is all AI. It’s flying itself.” He extends his palm and the drone gracefully lands on it.
The drone’s toolset includes cameras, sensors, face recognition and three grams of shaped explosive. The man throws the drone into the air and it zeroes in on a mannequin and blows a hole in its head. The video then shows how a swarm of such drones can punch holes through windows and use artificial intelligence to target one “bad guy” in a crowd of people. What can possibly go wrong?
We find out soon enough. In one scenario, the drones begin targeting university students who have