
Using Ms. Pac-Man to Train the Next Generation of Military Drones - anthotny
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/could-ms-pac-man-train-the-next-generation-of-military-drones
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remarkEon
There's been a flurry of Military related posts on HN the last few days. Not
complaining, I love talking/writing about this stuff. But I have to point it
out that I've noticed.

So, are folks submitting more of those articles or is there something about
the cultural zeitgeist right now that pushes people who frequent HN to up-vote
them?

Perhaps more directly: Are people becoming more afraid about the Military co-
opting advances in tech for use in Warfare?

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notmtaemployee
Generally its the opposite, technology developed by the military is co-opted
by the civilian sector.

Anyways all these new "AI" memes don't change anything, the weapons are just
as lethal as they are today. All that's changing is more and more personal is
no longer needed in the field and can be seated behind a desk. For the
foreseeable future humans will still be involved in the decision to engage
(kill) someone. When the day comes and robots will decide who they want to
engage without a human in the loop, than we should really be afraid.

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Rapzid
I think it raises questions about the rules of engagement if all your
deployments are unmanned.

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remarkEon
I think this is something that needs to be more deeply explored, especially if
we're going to start using software to do things like "acquire targets." Now,
lots of "deployments" for folks that fly Drones aren't deployments in the
traditional sense of the word (they aren't in the combat zone). But...how will
this work when you're part of a team that runs a semi-autonomous killing
machine?

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mysterydip
Software has been used to acquire targets for a long time. This excerpt on the
F14 shows the original radar had a "single target track - auto acquisition"
mode:
[https://books.google.com/books?id=knvVwLX6mFMC&pg=PA245&lpg=...](https://books.google.com/books?id=knvVwLX6mFMC&pg=PA245&lpg=PA245&dq=awg-9+evaluate+threat&source=bl&ots=RhkjgwMSnj&sig=tiy1dMOZCvsQRzvyTY0LqlxfQ3w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjxp67_g4jTAhWDyyYKHc7zAM0Q6AEIIzAB#v=onepage&q=awg-9%20evaluate%20threat&f=false)

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cranklin
Pinky's AI has a bug:
[http://donhodges.com/pacman_pinky_explanation.htm](http://donhodges.com/pacman_pinky_explanation.htm)

~~~
H4CK3RM4N
Wouldn't that sort of bug have been fixed in Ms Pacman?

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mvindahl
In the future, our enemies will distract our drones by dressing up as blue
ghosts and throwing fruits.

