We've had autonomous killing machines since WW2, and nobody seemed to care until recently when everything got reframed in a scary Skynet/Terminator way.
Most people seem to get their knowledge on the subject more from movies than reality.
Most people seem to get their knowledge on the subject more from movies than reality.
What are you referring to?
The only examples I know involve using animals to do the targeting. But all examples failed, as animals don't detect friend from foe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_animal#As_living_bomb...
I'd like to note that human being deciding when and where an attack should happen, never counts as "autonomous". Otherwise we have to count simple traps as "autonomous" weapons and the whole term becomes redundant. You could claim that any bullet shot while aiming through night vision goggles was "autonomous" because the shooter just set time and direction, but didn't really see who he was shooting at.
Second thought: you could claim that Japanese balloon firebombs and British balloon troops were using "autonomous" weapons. Then you would need to claim that changes in wind was the "AI". And strictly speaking that might be correct term. But then it's pretty easy to see why current hype about computerized "AI" has taken off in different way.
Such as:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_SGR-A1
Quote:
"identify and shoot a target automatically from over two miles (3.2 km) away."
There are some scary videos of it on the internet.
If we go to historical precedents, probably Russian swarming anti-ship missiles are the cut point. They can discriminate with carrier and it's companions, so the individual missile will make "I will not kill that" decision about individual ship. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-500_Bazalt