If Michael Bay’s first Transformers taught us anything, it’s that one day, an evil platoon of autonomous killer robots will fly to Earth in search of an all-encompassing life force, and they’ll have no qualms about eliminating any human that tries to stop them.
What are we gonna do about it? Wait for an equally as formidable fleet of benevolent space robots to arrive and hopefully save us, or build our goddamn own ones?
In a forum hosted by The Washington Post and covered by Yahoo, Deputy Director of Defense Robert Work said we aren’t waiting for Optimus Prime and Bumblebee and Jazz to lend us a hand.
No, the United States is gearing up for its first Robot War.
Work, who helps lead Pentagon efforts to ensure the US military keeps its technological edge, described several initiatives, including one dubbed “Loyal Wingman” that would see the Air Force convert an F-16 warplane into a semi-autonomous and unmanned fighter that flies alongside a manned F-35 jet.
“It is going to happen,” Work said
Basically, suck my flying American robot dick, Work is saying. With the skies already owned, let’s take on the seas?
“I would expect to see unmanned systems undersea all over the place, I would expect to see unmanned systems on the surface of the sea.”
Well, that covers two of the three theaters on the planet. Can we dominate land, too?
The US military wants to build driverless convoys to protect against roadside bombs, a low-tech weapon that has killed hundreds of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Basically, the entire planet will be dominated by autonomous U.S. robots.
But will they kill?
“We might be going up against a competitor that is more willing to delegate authority to machines than we are, and as that competition unfolds we will have to make decisions on how we best can compete,” he said.
Yea, that’s not a no.
Hey, what about a supercomputer to fight ISIS?
The Pentagon is also developing artificial intelligence capabilities, such as “deep-learning” machines that can sift mind-boggling amounts of data.
Already, the military is tasking these machines to scrutinize the Islamic State group and better understand its organizational structure.
“Learning machines are going to allow us to get after ISIS as a network and deal them a lasting defeat,” Work said.
So, combine a super strong AI with a fleet of autonomous robot planes, submarines, and tanks, and give them an ambiguous position on their authority to use lethal action and, well…
At least the next 20 years won’t be boring.
[Via Yahoo]