When artificial intelligence becomes the new darling of warfare, how long is it left for humanity to

Mondo Technology Updated on 2024-02-21

As early as the fifties of the last century, the concept of artificial intelligence was first proposed. At that time, due to the backward performance of computers, artificial intelligence technology was just a science fiction technology proposed by a group of young scientists to simulate the thinking and learning of intelligent creatures with computers.

However, after the seventies, the rapid development of electronic technology made artificial intelligence technology possible. Especially in 1997, IBM's Deep Blue artificial intelligence computer successfully defeated the famous chess world champion Kasparov in a chess match. This has surprised many people to see that artificial intelligence, with the ability to learn and think independently, has begun to move from science fiction to reality.

Today, artificial intelligence technology has entered thousands of households with a large number of popular personal computers and smartphones, and technologies such as unmanned driving and artificial intelligence hosts have also begun to take shape. But it is clear that aggressive humans have never simply embraced AI as a technology for the well-being of their people. While civilian artificial intelligence technology is booming, countries have also begun to secretly exert efforts in military artificial intelligence. No man's deep space.

In the video game Ace Air Combat 7, a chilling future world is depicted - in that fictional world, highly maneuverable drones replace manned fighters, swarm-like neural combat networks make it difficult to perform traditional air combat tactics, and even the production of drones has been unmanned, and there is a tendency for artificial intelligence to compete with humans and even have an advantage.

The world view of the Ace Combat 7 game is of course fictional, but the disturbing drone equipped with artificial intelligence technology has indeed appeared in reality.

Since the beginning of this century, UAVs have begun to replace some manned fighters, and have occupied a place on the battlefield with their longer endurance and air time, and higher cost performance. However, the prospects for the development of drones go far beyond that. At present, the US military is trying to bring more mature artificial intelligence to larger unmanned fighter jets.

Not long ago, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) hosted a man-machine battle in which an air combat AI pits an F-16 fighter flight instructor with more than 20 years of flying experience. As a result, the ace-level veteran pilot was pressed to the ground and rubbed by the AI throughout the five simulated battles, three of which were shot down by the cannon. Afterwards, he also had to admit itAI pilots are far better than human pilots in situational awareness and overload maneuvering capabilities

The ace of the US military that lost in a simulated air battle.

Artificial intelligence pilots who have not yet fully matured have been able to crush to a large extent the professional pilots that the US military has trained over decades. So it is conceivable that in the future, artificial intelligence technology will continue to mature, and military-grade artificial intelligence will be installed on fighter jets, tanks and even unmanned nuclear submarines, which will completely change the mode of human warfare, and even turn the air combat battlefield into unmanned deep space. AI competition.

In 2014, the U.S. Department of Defense proposed for the first time that artificial intelligence technology should be listed as the focus of the future construction of the U.S. Department's combat network, firing the first shot of the U.S. military's exploration of military artificial intelligence. Subsequently, Lockheed. Martin Company, Raytheon Company and other big-name companies have followed suit.

It has been learned that the first-generation "swarm" unmanned fighter developed by Raytheon has initially possessed the ability to independently judge flight and cruise routes and determine the type of target to be hit. DARPA has also pledged at least $2 billion for the next generation of AI research.

Information-based U.S. military.

Seeing that the Americans have made breakthroughs in military artificial intelligence technology, other countries are naturally not idle, especially Russia, the number one opponent of the United States. On August 23, the S-70 Hunter stealth drone developed by the Russian Sukhoi Design Bureau conducted another test flight.

In response, the head of the Russian United Aircraft Corporation, Yuri Slyusa, said that they plan to start mass deliveries of the drone to the Russian army in 2024. The S-70 UAV is not only an unmanned attack aircraft, but also can fight with the Su-57 fighter, and it is equipped with Russian artificial intelligence pilot technology.

S-70 UAV.

In order to study military-grade artificial intelligence technology, Russia specifically established the National Center for the Basic Development of Technology and Robotics in 2015, which of course, is also known as Russia's DARPA. And Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has repeatedly stressed that artificial intelligence technology is crucial for the future development of the Russian army. Obviously, in the first place of military-grade artificial intelligence, Russia is not willing to lag behind the United States too much.

In contrast, China, while equally attached importance to the construction of artificial intelligence, is also very wary of this technology. China has repeatedly called for an AI arms race between countries, arguing that the technology has the potential to threaten humanity itself.

The opinion of France is similar to that of China, with Patrice the CEO of Thales, France's largest producer. Kane said the company will never produce an automatic killing machine. French Defense Minister Florence Parly also said that letting machines choose whether to choose or not will be a matter of life and death for human beings.

However, the advantages of AI technology are too tempting, and in addition to the United States and Russia, the United Kingdom, Israel, Turkey, South Korea and other countries are in full swing to develop their own military-grade AI. Christo, columnist for Future Life magazine and artificial intelligence expert. In his article, Gronland admitted: Although everyone does not want this, the starting gun of the AI arms race has been fired, and the threat of military AI to mankind will be inevitable. 」

The Barracuda drone, jointly developed by Europe, self-destructs.

Luthers, an expert in American affairs. Trento once commented on artificial intelligence technology: If the first atomic bomb marked the first time that human civilization had the ability to self-destruct, then the proliferation of artificial intelligence technology in the military will mark a new level of efficiency of human means of self-destruction. 」

In fact, since the birth of artificial intelligence technology, it has been facing controversy from the outside world. In the 80s, the fear of artificial intelligence gave rise to the fantasy that intelligent robots of the future would destroy humanity, and gave rise to the screen classic Terminator. However, compared to the T-800 in the movie, the real artificial intelligence poses a greater threat to mankind.

An unmanned armored combat vehicle capable of carrying artificial intelligence.

With the development of computer technology, the two major thresholds of artificial intelligence technology, self-learning and logical analysis, are no longer unattainable peaks, but there is still a problem that has not been overcome: although these artificial intelligence has far more learning ability than humans, it does not have the emotions that humans should have.

A sociologist once said that people are called human because they have human nature and emotions. But for military AI, they only know what an order is, and all their actions revolve around the core of executing orders。Just imagine, maybe in a future war, drones could easily raze a school full of teachers and students to the ground, only to be decapitated for an important target hidden in the school crowd; Unmanned tanks bombed civilians armed with self-defense** into the sky with a single shot, just because they had the intention to attack ......

Maybe this scenario will never happen, and maybe there will be more advanced technology to limit them, but for now, it is almost impossible for humans to completely control artificial intelligence. Because in this world, there can be no perfect program, and for military artificial intelligence, a mistake can lead to catastrophic consequences.

Many well-known personalities, such as the deceased famous scientist Stephen Hawking, the legendary business tycoon Elon Musk, and Alibaba founder Jack Ma, have expressed concerns about military artificial intelligence. When Stephen Hawking was alive, he pointed out that although artificial intelligence will multiply the efficiency of warfare, the speed and efficiency of civilians and even the destruction of human civilization when these unmanned weapons lose control will also be exponentially improved.

It can be said that AI technology is like a Pandora's box, it looks very beautiful, but it also has a huge threat to humanity. Finally, with the French scholar Luke. A word from Diaz to end the article:Although artificial intelligence technology is now making our lives better and more convenient, as the curtain of the AI arms race opens, humanity may only have the last half century left to self-destruct

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