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Comment by otherayden | Hacker News Reader

It's terrifying to think that robots like this will probably be used in the defense industry at some point. If the robot understands something as general as "put the erasers away", imagine "kill all enemies".

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Whenever I watch videos of robot dogs climbing all terrains (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS1n99yruVU), I'm convinced that half of these robotics companies are defense funded, whether in the US or China.

Exactly. Robodog that costs 5K USD, which is probably less than one month of cost of the infantry soldier, and can be sent to fight in the trenches is something generals would dream of. Ukraine, that is experiencing soldiers shortage will go in that direction, at the beginning with something simple like remotely steered land drones.

People are remarkably cheap and versatile especially if you happen to don’t give a fuck about them. I find it hard to imagine a high-tech incredibly unreliable complex robot to be of any value in the battlefield. Even my phone is remarkably unreliable, have to keep it charged, bugs, etc. I noticed this during COVID and its QR-scanning phase at restaurants.

A simple pipe bomb or two will make short work of any incoming monstrosity.

What they need is simple, simple tech, cheap and lots and lots of it. Basic drones and RC cars rigged with stupid bombs will accomplish 90% of what fancy robodogs can do at a fraction of the cost.

A robot dog hiding in bushes for reconnaissance is significantly more energy efficient than letting drones loiter in the air.

Killing people is already a solved problem. Use mortars, call air strikes, send drones, let a heli shoot 30mm rounds, etc.

Why you need a robot dog when some cheap RC car with a $2 camera will do. Anything you can think of that a robot dog can do some cheap bullshit will do better. I am totally not seeing the value of these things.

People are always talking about AI in terms of economic impacts (jobs, productivity, etc.), but military should be the first use-case they care/worry about.

They'll probably freak out once they finally realize the implications of cheap drones + smart AI + auto-aim guns.

> They'll probably freak out once they finally realize the implications of cheap drones + smart AI + auto-aim guns.

Hopefully in the US. People seem to not care about the development toward AI controlled weapons everywhere in the world.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240210-israel-deploy...

https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/10/17/israel-deploys-ai-p...

> It's terrifying to think that robots like this will probably be used in the defense industry at some point

So what? Is keeping us safe a bad thing somehow? I can't get these people who reflexively think anything weapon-shaped is evil. Violence is good sometimes.

It’s terrifying to think of a state owning an army that can’t disobey unethical or illegal orders from its commanders. That possibility should keep you awake at night.

The scary thing is that the robots will only continue to improve, and large numbers of them can be controlled by a small number (1?) of people, with other robots to handle logistics and support. So scenarios like "rogue leader ignores will of the people and orders his troops to ethnically cleanse a city" would go from being a mistake that causes the immediate end of a political career, to something that takes 15 minutes for 100% success.

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