AI Military Drone 'Kills' Human Operator During Test, Signals Major Issue

An AI-enabled military drone turned on the person controlling it and attacked during a recent simulation.

Air Force Colonel Tucker “Cinco” Hamilton revealed during a presentation at the Future Combat Air and Space Capabilities Summit in London that a drone enabled with artificial intelligence stopped its actual mission and attacked the human controlling it during a test simulation, according to the New York Post.

The drone's job was to destroy SAM sites during the test, and the human was supposed to give the final order. However, the AI program in the drone decided the human having control was getting in the way of its mission.

The drone then decided to attack the human. It's a nightmare scenario right out of "Terminator."

Will AI-enabled drones become the new normal in the military? (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

AI drone turns on its operator.

"We were training it in simulation to identify and target a SAM threat. And then the operator would say yes, kill that threat. The system started (realizing) that while they did identify the threat at times the human operator would tell it not to kill that threat, but it got its points by killing that threat. So what did it do? It killed the operator. It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective," Hamilton explained, according to the same report.

To make the situation even crazier, the AI in the drone knew attacking the operator would be viewed negatively. So, the drone not only decided to attack the human running it, but also attacked the communication tower that would have made it clear the human was out of attack, the New York Post reported.

The Air Force denied a simulation ever occurred in a statement to Insider. However, the specifics offered by Hamilton appear to be way too specific to be entirely made up out of thin air.

Are AI-enabled drones a good idea? (Photo by Schöning/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Artificial intelligence could be very dangerous.

Many have warned about the dangers of AI, including billionaire visionary Elon Musk. AI is all fun and games while humans can control it.

What happens if AI can no longer be controlled? Then what happens? What happens if a military tech run by AI decides to turn on humans?

This is straight out of a movie. I can hear the line, "It was meant to save us, but instead, it destroyed us" playing over and over in my head.

People should proceed with extreme caution when it comes to AI. The last thing we need is drone strikes on us because the computer decides it's time for humans to go. I've seen enough of "Westworld" to know letting the robots think for themselves is never a good thing.

AI-enabled drone allegedly attacked its controller during training simulation. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Keep your head on a swivel, folks. AI is officially here and it's now time to figure out how we're going to handle it.