Chilling article from Zeteo on Israel’s use of armed quadcopters in Gaza and the future development of such warfare.
"The point here is not that armed quadcopters like those the Israeli military reportedly uses in Gaza are unprecedented. It's that they are very, very precedented, to the degree that they have the aura of inevitability"
#Drones#DroneWarfare#China#Autel#Russia#Ukraine: "A FORTHCOMING DRONE made by Autel, a Chinese electronics manufacturer and drone-maker, is being marketed using images of the unmanned aerial vehicle carrying a payload of what appears to be explosive shells. The images were discovered just two months after the company condemned the military use of its flying robots.
In response to concerns from China-hawk lawmakers in the U.S.Opens in a new tab over Autel’s alleged connections to the Chinese government and its “potentially supporting Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine,” according to a congressional inquiry into the firm, Autel issuedOpens in a new tab a public statement disowning battlefield use of its drones: “Autel Robotics strongly opposes the use of drone products for military purposes or any other activities that infringe upon human rights.” A month later, it issued a second, similarly worded denialOpens in a new tab: “Autel Robotics is solely dedicated to the development and production of civilian drones. Our products are explicitly designed for civilian use and are not intended for military purposes.”"
#DroneWarfare#Drones#Tasers#Axon: "Only a few weeks before Smith’s announcement, a majority of the members of Axon’s AI Ethics Board—which consisted of a dozen academics, attorneys, activists, and former law enforcement officials—recommended the company not move forward with a pilot study of Taser-armed drones, then called Project ION. The board had spent more than a year considering the Taser-equipped drone project but had never considered any use case in which it would be a solution to mass shootings.
Advisory board members told The Markup that Smith’s announcement was unexpected and made without consultation or input from the ethics body the company had worked relatively well with for the previous four years. In the past, the board’s work prompted Axon to ban facial recognition on its body cameras out of concern the technology could not be responsibly rolled out."