Let& #39;s pump the breaks here for a minute. I& #39;ve said this many times before, but as someone who focused on urban warfare before entering the tech/AI space, I have some reservations about what high tech can and cannot do in urban environments. Some thoughts: https://twitter.com/willknight/status/1391783674069258241">https://twitter.com/willknigh...

1. Urban environments are both congested in communications signals and at times inaccessible/unreliable. So you have to think about how you& #39;re going to keep these systems communicating w/ operators AND each other WHILE accounting for enemy interference, electronic warfare, etc.

2. Before anything else, you gotta ask-what problem is the tech solving? So here its abt identifying & targeting enemy combatants under the assumption algorithms will improve to a point where they can do that reliably. That& #39;s a huge problem & a really hopeful assumption, imo.

Identification is actually one of the hardest problems in urban operations, esp. distinguishing between civilians & combatants, and it& #39;s one of the main reasons for why urban warfare is so costly for civilians even when parties want to comply with IHL ( https://www.ifri.org/en/publications/etudes-de-lifri/focus-strategique/future-urban-warfare-age-megacities#:~:text=Margarita%20KONAEV-,The%20Future%20of%20Urban%20Warfare%20in%20the%20Age%20of%20Megacities,88%2C%20March%202019&text=In%20Latin%20America%2C%20where%20urban,homicide%20rates%20in%20the%20world).">https://www.ifri.org/en/public...

How are you going to train an AI to reliably identify combatants & differentiate them from civilians when combatants hide and move among the civilian population, use civilian infrastructure, and you rarely can evacuate the entire civilian population from the city?

3. I& #39;ve written on what AI can do in urban warfare ( https://warontherocks.com/2019/10/with-ai-well-see-faster-fights-but-longer-wars/)">https://warontherocks.com/2019/10/w... & I do see both potential & necessity for greater autonomy in systems employed in urban settings, including for reducing civilian harm

But I am skeptical you& #39;ll be able to responsibly delegate target selection & engagement to AI in urban settings b/c of civilians present, the extremely dynamic conditions, how fast things can change, and the massive vulnerabilities of ML systems in such complex environments.