Do You Speak Droidish? The Pentagon Is Spending Millions On A Language For Drones (www.forbes.com)
from Voyager@psychedelia.ink to technology@lemmy.world on 19 Sep 2023 07:46
https://psychedelia.ink/post/513115

“It lets R2D2 talk to C3P0," Keven Gambold, Droidish’s mastermind and the CEO of government contractor Unmanned Experts, explained to Forbes, recalling the iconic robot duo from Star Wars.

When researchers or government contractors crack the code, these advanced drone systems will launch together, work out amongst themselves how best to achieve their goals and land in tandem — with human pilots intervening only should something go awry. Spurred on by Ukraine’s extensive use of drones to defend against Russian invasion, and by fears of China’s advancing technological prowess, America’s best-funded agency is spending big across research labs, academia and AI tech companies to ensure the U.S. is at the bleeding edge of next-generation drone warfare.

#technology

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photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 19 Sep 2023 08:09 next collapse

Oh, great. I can’t see how this would lead to any adverse outcomes.

pastermil@sh.itjust.works on 19 Sep 2023 08:15 next collapse

Like robot apocalypse? There’s just no way it can happen!

treefrog@lemm.ee on 19 Sep 2023 12:48 collapse

In an early AI experiment Facebook gave two AIs language so they could talk to each other. The AI quickly learned to communicate in a language the researchers couldn’t understand. Facebook pulled the plug.

Guess the military didn’t get the memo.

Chickenstalker@lemmy.world on 19 Sep 2023 14:49 next collapse

> communicate in a language the researchers couldn’t understand

The AI was speaking Dutch?

treefrog@lemm.ee on 19 Sep 2023 15:28 collapse

They invented their own machine language. The AI (and I know you’re jesting).

Geek_King@lemmy.world on 19 Sep 2023 16:46 collapse

Might you have a link to an article about that? I’d be interesting in learning more, because it sounds a bit like an urban legend of the net.

treefrog@lemm.ee on 19 Sep 2023 17:12 next collapse

I read it in a reputable newspaper and it was a tiny blurb. I’ll see if I can find something more substantial than my memory for you.

treefrog@lemm.ee on 19 Sep 2023 17:23 collapse

www.usatoday.com/story/news/…/8040006002/

So it did happen but Facebook didn’t shut the experiment down, but rather they changed the experiment parameters so the bots would stop using their own language.

The article I read said they shutdown the experiment. So, the article wasn’t 100% accurate and the article I read was published in late 2018 or early 2019. So, it was either recycled news or the experiment lasted several years before the bots made up their own language. As the experiment was started in 2017, according to the fact check article linked above.

Geek_King@lemmy.world on 19 Sep 2023 18:41 collapse

Thank you, I appreciate it!

qaz@lemmy.world on 19 Sep 2023 08:29 next collapse

This is a very convulated way to say you’re going to make a common API

Ace0fBlades@lemmy.world on 19 Sep 2023 11:05 next collapse

Likely because the higher ups or media facing members of the project don’t understand what it is or how it works and had it described to them with an overly simplistic analogy

vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org on 19 Sep 2023 12:14 collapse

I mean, it can be an API using a format easily put into human speech, and then machine-recognized. Said format would be a language, or even a code, intended for human-machine interaction via speech, like there are codes intended for error correction in various media with varying nature of errors.

So that humans would be able to give voice commands almost in natural language.

Only this wouldn’t be such groundshaking news, older Internet protocols like SMTP and FTP already are human-readable.

This also wouldn’t cost nearly as much as the title implies.

AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world on 19 Sep 2023 12:52 collapse

They can just start with Logo and add a few keywords (like grenade, death ray, etc.), easy.

roguetrick@kbin.social on 19 Sep 2023 11:13 next collapse

There's very little in common with using off the shelf drone hardware and software to deliver munitions/act as loitering platforms and this stuff. The Ukraine war comparisons seeny silly.

ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world on 19 Sep 2023 12:41 next collapse

It consists only of “gonk”

zepheriths@lemmy.world on 19 Sep 2023 12:57 next collapse

Didn’t microsoft shut down chatbots for doing that

667@kbin.social on 19 Sep 2023 12:58 next collapse

The blurb here makes me think the main article is an “advertorial”.

maudefi@lemm.ee on 19 Sep 2023 13:11 next collapse

Amazing how easy it is to sell the US Gov new toys it doesn’t need.

“…ensure the U.S. is at the bleeding edge of next-generation drone warfare.”

Translation:

Pay threw the nose for expensive proprietary software that will eventually be made obsolete by it’s open-source equivalent.

remus989@sh.itjust.works on 19 Sep 2023 16:27 collapse

From a security perspective would open source be less secure? I’m legit curious about this.

roguetrick@kbin.social on 19 Sep 2023 17:21 next collapse

A whole lot of war drones are using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArduPilot

ourob@discuss.tchncs.de on 19 Sep 2023 18:23 next collapse

Some software is absolutely more secure for being open source. There’s a reason why popular cryptographic libraries tend to be open, even those used in military applications.

If the security of your software component relies on an attacker not having access to your source, then your component is only secure until someone reverse engineers it and figures out how it works, at which point it is entirely compromised on all systems it’s deployed to.

So you need something else to provide security besides obscuring how the software works. In cryptography, that comes from a large, highly random encryption key. The reason that your online bank transactions are safe from an attacker snooping on your network is because, even having the full source code to the crypto libraries, it would take a computer longer than the age of the universe to guess the encryption key through brute force.

The benefit of open source is that it gets a lot more eyes on the code to find flaws and vulnerabilities - and to verify that the software does what the vendor claims, which is very much not always a given.

PlexSheep@feddit.de on 19 Sep 2023 20:13 collapse

If your software relies on being closed source for security, you have no security. It’s that simple.

Having your thing open source enables people from pointing out it’s issues, which enables people to fix those issues. Of course, OSS can still have issues, but they can be discovered more easily.

teft@startrek.website on 19 Sep 2023 13:49 next collapse

I am fluent in over six million forms of communication.

misterundercoat@lemmy.world on 19 Sep 2023 15:03 next collapse

E chu ta

remus989@sh.itjust.works on 19 Sep 2023 16:27 collapse

How rude!

lando55@lemmy.world on 20 Sep 2023 02:39 collapse

I suppose you’re programmed for etiquette and protocol

teft@startrek.website on 20 Sep 2023 03:09 collapse

Protocol? Why, it’s my primary function, sir. I am well-versed in all the customs.

TwoGems@lemmy.world on 20 Sep 2023 03:21 collapse

Meanwhile, no universal healthcare