The First Autonomous Weapon was used in 2021. It was not American, Russian or Chinese.

There has been a huge hullabaloo over autonomous weapons in 2020. Calls for their outright ban were made by many. Pushes for an agreement, a treaty, to do so were pushed rather hard, but did not come to fruition. Even so, America, European nations and others wanted an outright ban. Russia claimed it wanted a ban. China even accepted a narrow definition of autonomous weapons for a ban. Everyone is nervous about a Skynet to one extent or another. Despite the diplomatic efforts, the concerns and the support at one level or another, the ban as failed.

The first autonomous weapon was deployed and used in 2020.

It was not American.

It was not Russian.

It was not Chinese.

It was Turkish. Specifically, the weapon in question was a Turkish drone in Libya armed with missiles. It was launched by the faction claiming to be the national government. It identified its target - a convoy - and attacked without requesting permission from its operators.

This has massive implications. That it was developed by a US ally - albeit one in the doghouse right now - makes it even more controversial. It also means technological convergence is accelerating. To be fair, the rules guiding the weapon may not be very sophisticated. However, we are seeing nations other than the US or even the great powers start developing their own advanced weapons. Doing something before the great powers is a nontrivial convergence, if not leapfrog and for anyone from the POV of the 1980s a very surprising and alien world.

Welcome to that new world.

www.wired.com...

Things are definitely changing. The last Armenia/Azer war was won with drones. Watching the footage it looked like ground based units were totally screwed by machines that cost a fraction of those which they destroyed.
I can only wonder what the "big" countries have under their sleeves. (Especially in regards to their Autonomous hardware)

Re:

Artificial Intelligence Easily Beats Human Fighter Pilot in DARPA Trial

The AI also is able to make adjustments on a “nanosecond level” where the human “OODA loop”—observe, orient, decide, and act—takes longer, giving the algorithm another advantage.

Banger survived longer in each successive round, though he was not able to hit the AI’s F-16, which was “flying” with the callsign “Falco.” He started the contest following the basic rules, and in following rounds tried to learn the methods of the algorithm, which flew more aggressively.


www.airforcemag.com...

originally posted by: canucks555
Re:

Artificial Intelligence Easily Beats Human Fighter Pilot in DARPA Trial

The AI also is able to make adjustments on a “nanosecond level” where the human “OODA loop”—observe, orient, decide, and act—takes longer, giving the algorithm another advantage.

Banger survived longer in each successive round, though he was not able to hit the AI’s F-16, which was “flying” with the callsign “Falco.” He started the contest following the basic rules, and in following rounds tried to learn the methods of the algorithm, which flew more aggressively.


www.airforcemag.com...

Computers don't have to worry about G force either. This allows the computer to easily and drastically out maneuver humans.

a reply to: Alien Abduct

That could be an exploited area versus ai as it flies faster and maneuvers faster it is burning fuel faster.

I was under the impression Wing Loong II used by UAE in Libya was way better than Turkish TB2. It's much bigger and carries way more. Not to mention SATCOM which makes it strike much further than TB2.

It is a bit worrying but drones are still programmed by humans. so the decision making process is just made a long time in advance.