🥵AI War Era Dawns

Ukraine's push for AI-enabled war drones

Key Points 

• Ukrainian startups are developing AI systems to manage drone fleets, aimed at countering Russian signal jamming and enhancing UAV coordination on front lines.

• Efforts center on visual systems, terrain mapping, and swarm coordination for drones to enhance operational capabilities.

♨️News - In Ukraine, several startups are creating AI systems aimed at managing a large fleet of drones. The objective is to counter Russian signal jamming and enhance the capability of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to operate more effectively in coordinated formations on the front lines.

AI drone development in the country is focused on three main areas: visual systems for target identification, terrain mapping for navigation, and complex programs for coordinating drone swarms.

☠️Warfare's new wave - Swarmer, a company in this field, is creating software to network drones, allowing instant decision-making across the group, with humans only approving automated strikes. Swarmer's system, Styx, coordinates both reconnaissance and strike drones in the air and on the ground, enabling each drone to plan its own moves and predict others' behavior. 

CEO Serhiy Kupriienko explained that managing large groups of drones with human pilots is impractical, but AI can handle hundreds. This automation not only scales up operations but also protects drone pilots near the front lines, he added. 

🚨Why this matters - While Swarmer's technology is still under development and has only been experimentally tested in the field, this raises ethical concerns about weapons that operate without human oversight. Moreover, these systems could violate international humanitarian law and make it easier to start conflicts, as warned by a 2020 European Parliament research paper.

New UK leadership to tackle regulation of 'most powerful' AI models

Key Points 

• Britain's new Labour government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer aims to regulate the 'most powerful' AI models.

• They are in the process of exploring effective regulatory measures but have not yet proposed specific laws.

☕News - Britain's new Labour government, led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, is looking into how to regulate artificial intelligence models effectively. They haven't proposed specific laws yet, but in a  recent parliamentary session, they outlined an agenda featuring over 35 new bills addressing various issues such as housing and cybersecurity. 

The government also stated that it plans to create laws that will set rules for developers working on the most powerful AI models.

⚖️Approaches to AI regulation: old vs. new government - Under the previous administration led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, there was a clear effort to position Britain as a world leader in AI safety. This included launching the world's first AI Safety Institute, focusing on advanced AI models such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. Sunak's government chose not to implement targeted AI regulations, preferring to distribute oversight responsibilities among various regulators.

In contrast, Prime Minister Keir Starmer's new Labour government is promising to introduce new AI laws but is approaching the process with caution.

🧐But do experts agree with this approach? Some AI experts believe that the explosion of AI tools in the past 18 months underscores the urgent need for new laws. Among them, Gaia Marcus, director of the Ada Lovelace Institute, stressed the importance of the government bringing forward legislation quickly. She pointed out that these systems are already becoming a part of people's daily lives, public services, and economy, offering benefits and opportunities but also posing risks to people and society.