Political Memes

I hate to break it to you but the development of AI weapon systems was always an inevitability. It has been an inevitability since the first ape hit another ape with a rock.

Now we can decide, collectively, that we don't want to permit the use such weapons. I'd certainly support such a decision. We can treat them like nuclear weapons, something that should be too dangerous to contemplate using. We can work to put in place international safeguards against their use. Those would be good goals to work towards. But they didn't suddenly spring into existence because of some guy in Ukraine, and acting like they did is ignorant and asinine.

If you're under the impression that this is, somehow, a one-sided development on Ukraine's part - that Russia, along with every other major military power in the world, is not currently racing to develop their own autonomous weaponry - then you either have an insanely optimistic view of the world, or you're a Russian propagandist. The only reason Ukraine is the first country we've heard of using such weapons is because they're in such a desperate situation that deploying untested military hardware directly into battle makes sense. One of the key advantages they've been able to hold over the Russians is how rapidly they iterate on their technology, but that advantage comes from an approach of building small production runs, testing them directly in the field and then reviewing the results. They do this with their drones, with their anti-drone defenses, and everything else besides. It's not a safe, careful, thoughtful way of doing things, but it is effective, and when you're facing total annihilation you will always choose effective over safe.

If you want to stand up for the idea that autonomous weapons are too dangerous to be allowed to exist, you won't hear any disagreement from me. But if all you want to do is wag your finger at people fighting for their lives then you really to stop and consider whether this comes from a place of genuine concern for the world, or just a need to feed your own sense of moral superiority.