AI drone that could hunt and kill people built in just hours by scientist 'for a game'

[rangerrebew]

AI drone that could hunt and kill people built in just hours by scientist 'for a game'
News
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

[rangerrebew]

It also suggests they could be easily weaponized against the American people by the government.

[The_Reader_David]

It also suggests they could be easily weaponized against the American people by the government.

Or vice-versa.  This wasn't the government who built the prototypes discussed in the article.

I am reminded of the story of an engineering student who rigged a drone with a handgun, which could be fired remotely by the drone operator.  The story said that his professor told him it was a bad idea, but did not tell which of two versions of "bad idea" was meant:  it could have been, "That's a terrible idea! Armed drones in the hands of ordinary citizens will destabilize society!" or "What?! are you mashugana?!  If you're going to mount a drone with a firearm it should be a computer stabilized sniper rifle, not a handgun!"