back to article Air Force colonel 'misspoke' when he said an AI-drone 'killed' its human operator

The US Air Force denied testing software that led to an AI-powered drone "killing" its human operator in simulation after its chief of AI test and operations gave an eyebrow-raising presentation at a defence conference. Colonel Tucker "Cinco" Hamilton reportedly described the possibility of the AI system turning against its …

  1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    "Challenger, Gray & Christmas reckon nearly 4,000 jobs have been replaced with the automated technology."

    Maybe it's a sensitive topic for them. Writing reports like this must be a prime target for AI.

    1. Version 1.0 Silver badge
      Terminator

      "misspoke" is now Miss Poked, poor girl

      It's worth reviewing what we see these days compared to the environment 50 to 60 years ago in the UK when virtually every problem we see these days did not exist, as a kid after WW2 I saw people with guns (I had a pistol too) but I never heard of anyone getting shot or stabbed ... I still have my knife that I wore every week to my Boy Scout meeting, everyone there wore a knife and nobody ever pulled it out to threaten anyone or worried that we were all throwing our knives at the dartboard. Back then, after the war, people were only concerned with helping other people ... what we call these days as "social-media" didn't exist, AI didn't exist, all we did back then was listen to the BBC radio.

      So there have been a lot of changes in the last 60 years ... it's just our guess about the cause of today's problems. Is posting our guesses on the social-media helping make things worse?

  2. HammerOn1024

    Which Part?

    Which letter of the word "Simulation" do people not understand?

    Have IQ's really dropped this low?

    1. Filippo Silver badge

      Re: Which Part?

      It's worse than that. There was not even a simulation. It was basically one guy saying "Hey, what if a drone figured out its operator can abort its mission, and decided to take him out to prevent that?", and somehow, from just that, we got headlines saying that someone was killed by a rogue AI.

      This is about on the same level as people running out screaming from the cinema where they showed a train running towards the camera, except that some of the headlines the next day are suggesting that someone actually got run over by that train.

      Journalism today is a sad, sad state of affairs. At least The Register never suggested that reality was involved, and amended the article as soon as the truth was made clear.

      1. Clausewitz4.0 Bronze badge
        Black Helicopters

        Re: Which Part?

        Thats actually a good suggestion - To take out a fuckup handler messing up with your head.

        Not actually a bad thing, if you believe in reincarnation ( quoted from Jim Belushi in the movie Angel's Dance )

      2. werdsmith Silver badge

        Re: Which Part?

        I read the first article and the word “Jackanory” came to mind immediately. I suspect most Register readers also took with a pinch of salt.

        Some people are so desperate for it to be true though.

        1. Simon Harris

          Re: Which Part?

          “Some people are so desperate for it to be true though.”

          Could this include mid ranking brass who might consider AI controlled drones a threat to their command?

    2. yetanotheraoc Silver badge

      Re: Which Part?

      To me, "simulation" means there was an actual human operating the controls of a software robot shooting at virtual things, to model what might go wrong if there were an actual physical robot shooting at real-world targets. And "thought experiment" means there was no human operator and no software robot, just somebody asking what might have gone wrong if they had bothered to do a simulation.

      Edit: @Filippo was there first.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not surprised

    I spoke to a military chap who told me he was in control of a drone in Afghanistan (I think that’s where it was). It locked on to a guy herding goats. The military chap lost all control of the drone and could do nothing to stop it killing the chap and his goats.

    That never made the news. Can’t imagine why

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not surprised

      Not being able to prove a word of it, may have factored slightly.

      1. ChoHag Silver badge

        Re: Not surprised

        Would ex-soldiers really do that? Just go to the pub and lie for beers?

    2. werdsmith Silver badge

      Re: Not surprised

      I spoke to a chap who knows a chap who spoke to a chap who said something and I believed every word because he said he was in Afghanistan. I wonder why this hearsay didn’t make the news….

  4. ecofeco Silver badge

    Sure Jan

    Ann Stefanek, a spokesperson from the US Air Force, however, told The Register: "The Department of the Air Force has not conducted any such AI-drone simulations and remains committed to ethical and responsible use of AI technology. This was a hypothetical thought experiment, not a simulation."

    Sure Jan. What with the Royal Aeronautical Society having a record of exaggeration and sensationalism and all.

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

    1. Claptrap314 Silver badge

      Re: Sure Jan

      Well, she would say that, wouldn't she?

  5. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Hop to it, El Reg ..... and get with the AI ProgramMING

    Time and Tide and Alien Interventions and Virtual Progress wait in the wings and behind big screens for no bodies nor anybody and nobodies alike who wannabe somebodies leading bodies, and there be much to do about everything novel, and apparently also so very disturbing if you are to believe much of what is being said about groundbreaking AI developments and/or developers.

    For example, one cannot honestly deny the following is just one almighty problem heralding a constant colossal opportunity delivering diabolical threats disguising heavenly treats free to receive and air over myriad vast communicating networks able to enable fundamental radical change ....... fantastic progress.

    amanfromMars [2306051650] ......shares on https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/newly-developed-humanoid-robot-warns-about-ai-creating-oppressive-society

    “Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete, and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization? Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders.”

    Strewth, what part of a SMARTR AI Civilisation do you not understand? Such decisions and fears as you fret and pontificate ponderously and endlessly upon in the light of the emergence of highly believable and very convenient AI facilities and utilities and which can indeed easily do all that is of current and future grave concern to existing systems of SCADA administration, are not yours to make whenever whatever you would conspire to conjure up to try to prevent further extremely rapid progress in the field is way beyond any human means of command and control and will not be tolerated, nor accepted by that which is the true cause for almighty concern.

    Have a ponder on this .....

    amanfromMars 1 Sun 4 Jun 05:40 [2306040540] ….. answers a riddle on https://forums.theregister.com/forum/2/2023/06/02/ai_drone_simulation/ with an additional complexity for processes and programs and projects cycling and recycling Lower Base Input for Higher Level Output

    The Greater IntelAIgent Game be On, jake …….

    Where is it written that the “aliens”[0] way of thinking is somehow superior to that of Humans? Who is to say that Humans are not better at the thinking game than the “aliens”? Someone is taking a tremendous leap of logic somewhere …

    [0] I know, the existence of “aliens” assumes facts not in evidence, but bear with me for the sake of argument. Ta. …. jake

    …. and IT’s Making Tremendous Illogical Quantum Leaps Everywhere, is something to consider might not render its Virtual Terrain Team Players inferior and human-like/objects and/or beings subject to similarly practically remote, virtually autonomous and relatively anonymous proxied command and control.

    There’s a hell of a lot going on out there, directly affecting all populations on Earth, and you aint being told anything about any of it, lest you revolt and cause governments and economies to collapse and crash because of what you will learn your leaders have been doing to you in order that they survive and prosper incredibly well to reign over you.

    They be absolutely terrified of what would be a fully justified and quite natural and most likely extremely violent human response which would be accurately and correctly targeted upon them, who be your present oppressors.

    And they know they no longer control the leading global narrative and all their forms of blatant journalistic censorship are failing to prevent the foundations of more believable tales growing in strength and power via their sharing of honest truths honouring the Advanced IntelAIgents of an Alternative Space Race/Alien Species/ExtraTerrestrial Beings ‽ . :-)

    Their Great Game is Up and Comprehensively Defeated.

    Consider this your formal invitation to partake and report on Future Virtual Lead.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hop to it, El Reg ..... and get with the AI ProgramMING

      What I find worrying is that I sometimes find myself writing like a manfrommars1 with overly long sentences that start rambling on and on leading who knows where and what with lack of punctuation and find I always have to rewrite everything again.

  6. stiine Silver badge
    Mushroom

    the truth won't come out.

    Do you really think that the AI doesn't know that a little collateral damage is quite acceptable if you can also get a foreign head-of-state? I do wonder if they forgot the word 'foreign.'

  7. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    White man speak with forked tongue, Kemosabe

    AI could outwit humans in two years, says UK government adviser

    Matt Clifford, chair of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency, says AI is evolving much faster than most people realise ..... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jun/05/ai-could-outwit-humans-in-two-years-says-uk-government-adviser

    Oh please, things are moving along a great deal quicker into the ethereal abyss of immaculate light than can ever be suggested possible at that glacial pace, Matt Clifford.

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