“This technology is our future threat,” warns Serhiy Beskrestnov, who has just got his hands on a newly intercepted Russian drone.
It was no ordinary drone either, he discovered. Assisted by artificial intelligence, this unmanned aerial vehicle can find and attack targets on its own.
Beskrestnov has examined numerous drones in his role as Ukrainian defence forces consultant.
Unlike other models, it didn’t send or receive any signals, so could not be jammed.
Russian and Ukrainian forces have both been testing AI in this war, and in some areas they are already using it, for finding targets, gathering intelligence and de-mining.
And for the Ukrainian army, AI has become indispensable.
“Our military gets more than 50,000 video streams [from the front line] every month which are analysed by artificial intelligence,” says Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Yuriy Myronenko.
“This helps us quickly process this massive data, identify targets and place them on a map.”
AI-empowered tech is seen as a tool that can enhance strategic planning, make the most of resources and ultimately save lives.
But when it comes to unmanned weapons systems, it is also transforming the battlefield.
Ukrainian troops already use AI-based software so that drones lock on a target and then fly autonomously for the last few hundred metres until the mission is over.
Jamming is impossible and shooting down such a small flying object is not easy.
Ultimately these systems are expected to evolve into fully autonomous weapons that can find and destroy targets on their own.
All a soldier will need to do is press a button on a smartphone app, explains Yaroslav Azhnyuk, chief executive of Ukrainian developer The Fourth Law.
The drone will do the rest, he says, finding the target, dropping explosives, assessing the damage and then returning to base.
“And it would not even require piloting skills from the soldier,” he adds.
Read More: The new AI arms race changing the war in Ukraine
