In a country locked in an existential fight for survival against Russian invasion, Ukrainian developers are working fast to develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems to help fly a vast fleet of drones. The effort transforms warfare as combatants race to gain a technological edge in battle.
Using AI in military drones would allow them to take on tasks that were previously beyond the capabilities of even the best commercial UAVs, such as flying autonomously and identifying targets in complex environments. AI could also reduce the number of drones required for missions by enabling them to work in larger groups.
The technology could be used in Ukraine’s swarms of drones that routinely conduct long-range strikes against Russian military facilities and oil refineries inside Russia. Such attacks typically involve a core group of drones that fly to the target while other drones distract or take out air defenses. A new generation of AI-enabled drones could help make such swarms more effective by reducing their time on surveys, allowing them to get close enough to launch their bombs.
However, using military drones equipped with AI is raising concerns about ethical questions. In particular, such systems could lead to weapons that fail to distinguish between surrendering civilians and combatants, potentially violating international humanitarian law or lowering the threshold of going to war. A 2020 research paper by the European Parliament warned that such systems could “have an impact on international humanitarian law, including the principle of distinction between combatants and non-combatants.”
Tech startups such as Anduril are trying to develop the hardware needed for this kind of drone-mediated surrender. Anduril was founded by Palmer Luckey, an iconoclastic figure in the largely liberal tech community due to his work with the military and outspoken support for Donald Trump. The company claims that it can produce drones with this capability in less time than traditional contractors.
But it’s still early days for these technologies, and they will face challenges. For example, developing software that enables drones to process large amounts of data quickly and accurately is expensive and requires high-speed chips. This is difficult for engineers to cram into the kind of small drones being used by both sides in Ukraine, including the U.S.-made Switchblade 600 and Poland’s Warmate, both of which require a human to choose targets over a live video feed before the drone carries out the attack.
But if the Ukrainians can develop a system that allows their drones to act independently of humans, that might make it easier to overcome the Russians’ increasing signal jamming, which has thwarted drone operations in recent months. The goal is to create a system that links a drone network and instantly implements decisions across the group, with a human only stepping in to green-light a strike.
