AI drone that could hunt and kill people built in just hours by scientist 'for a game'
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By Keumars Afifi-Sabet published March 7, 2024
The scientist who configured a small drone to target people with facial recognition and chase them at full speed warns we have no defenses against such weapons.
Luis Wenus, an entrepreneur and engineer, incorporated AI and facial recognition into the small drone so it could chase people down at full speed. (Image credit: simonkr via Getty Images)
It only takes a few hours to configure a small, commercially available drone to hunt down a target by itself, a scientist has warned.
Luis Wenus, an entrepreneur and engineer, incorporated an artificial intelligence (AI) system into a small drone to chase people around "as a game," he wrote in a post on March 2 on X, formerly known as Twitter. But he soon realized it could easily be configured to contain an explosive payload.
Collaborating with Robert Lukoszko, another engineer, he configured the drone to use an object-detection model to find people and fly toward them at full speed, he said. The engineers also built facial recognition into the drone, which works at a range of up to 33 feet (10 meters). This means a weaponized version of the drone could be used to attack a specific person or set of targets.
https://www.livescience.com/technology/engineering/ai-drone-that-could-hunt-and-kill-people-built-in-just-hours-by-scientist-for-a-game