In 2017, Elon Musk signed an open letter Calling on the United Nations to ban the development of autonomous weapons.
“We do not have much time to act,” the letter said. “Once this Pandora’s box is opened, it will be difficult to close.”
In 2018 he signed a pledge by the Future of Life Institute, agreeing that “the decision to take human life should never be entrusted to a machine” and “we will neither participate in nor support the development, manufacture, trade, or use of lethal autonomous weapons.”
But it has become too tempting, in order to remain morally consistent, to award large government contracts in the same manner that he opposed them at the time. As bloomberg reportsSpaceX and XAI, the latter of which was recently joined by the former, are now competing in a Pentagon competition to produce voice-controlled, autonomous drone swarming technology.
insiders told bloomberg The Pentagon’s competition has a $100 million prize and was launched last month. The goal is to develop a drone swarm that can respond to voice commands simultaneously.
However, given the current state of large language models that are prone to hallucinations, it is no surprise that experts have expressed concerns about using generative AI to command deadly drones.
While the coordinated movement of drones is already a well-established technology, moving an entire network of drones together autonomously to pursue a target has proven extremely difficult on the battlefield. bloombergThe formula of.
The effort is part of the Trump administration’s Defense Autonomous Warfare Group (DAWG). And the Defense Innovation Unit, the branch of the Pentagon dedicated to tapping Silicon Valley for cutting-edge technology.
The goal is to progressively develop the concept from software to real-life testing in five different stages.
according to bloombergAccording to sources, the drones will not be used only for reconnaissance, which means they will also serve offensive purposes. Human-machine interaction “will directly impact the lethality and effectiveness of these systems.”
It’s a significant departure for SpaceX, which has previously signed government contracts for access to space and military satellites, but not for weapons systems.
Musk’s xAI has signed a $200 million contract with the US military for the use of its Grok chatbot and looking to hire engineers With security clearance.
This news comes ahead of rumors of a SpaceX IPO at a record-crushing valuation of $1.25 trillion. It remains to be seen how investors will react if Musk reverses his stance on the use of autonomous weapons systems.
musk The claim was made earlier this month Following the company’s merger with XAI, SpaceX will create “the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth with AI, rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile device communications, and the world’s leading real-time information and free speech platform.”
However, the CEOs made no mention of their companies’ efforts to develop drone swarms.
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