Unmanned wingman makes own decisions in test

The Navy Research Lab, working with the AFRL, and NAVAIR recently ran a test of the Tactical Battle Manager system, in which a human pilot was flying one aircraft, with an unmanned wingman (the manned aircraft was a simulator). During the course of the test, the wingman had to decide on what actions to take, to allow it to complete the mission requirements.

TBM allows a human operator top determine the mission goals for the unmanned aircraft, which then use Goal Reasoning techniques to determine what objectives to follow. The test performed was a BVR combat mission.

www.nrl.navy.mil...

Call me old fashioned, but I have an issue with this. Not the tech, that's totally "oh, wow!!".

This is taking the "human" out of war, and that can't go any where good, imho.

War should be bloody. Painful. Horrible.

Not an f'n video game, sitting on a couch with a can of Mt. Dew and a bag of chips!

Unless the innocents get to stay at home unharmed? If so then have at it, I guess.


Robert E. Lee, gentleman warrior and Civil War general, is reputed to have said

It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it.

War should be avoided, not sanitized.

Tech is cool, but I don't like the direction this is going. I may be in the minority, but what the hell.

I've seen this movie. Doesn't the AI fly off and start shooting the base up?

It is all fine and dandy till your wingman get hacked. Then you knee deep in it. What then? If Iran can highjack a stealth drone and a palistinian a israely live feed from their drone .a reply to: Zaphod58

It is all fine and dandy till your wingman get hacked. Then you knee deep in it. What then? If Iran can highjack a stealth drone and a palistinian a israely live feed from their drone .a reply to: Zaphod58

a reply to: Zaphod58

Cool. Especially this bit...

...“...goal reasoning agents can dynamically select new goals to pursue that are not pre-programmed.”

So the AI makes more than independent decisions about response-reaction - it sets new, un-programmed goals.

a reply to: Diebok

They didn't hack anything. They spoofed the GPS, which is no longer possible. As for the feeds, they were unencrypted.

originally posted by: Bedlam
I've seen this movie. Doesn't the AI fly off and start shooting the base up?

No it was a program inside of "tin man" that was running due to lightning strike messing with his brain. It only shot down threats to its mission until the end where it grew a conscience.