Was a flying killer robot used in Libya? Quite possibly
A screenshot from a promotional video advertising the Kargu drone. In the video, the weapon dives toward a target before exploding.
Last year in Libya, a Turkish-made autonomous weapon—the STM Kargu-2 drone—may have “hunted down and remotely engaged” retreating soldiers loyal to the Libyan General Khalifa Haftar, according to a recent report by the UN Panel of Experts on Libya. Over the course of the year, the UN-recognized Government of National Accord pushed the general’s forces back from the capital Tripoli, signaling that it had gained the upper hand in the Libyan conflict, but the Kargu-2 signifies something perhaps even more globally significant: a new chapter in autonomous weapons, one in which they are used to fight and kill human beings based on artificial intelligence.
The Kargu is a “loitering” drone that can use machine learning-based object classification to select and engage targets, with swarming capabilities in development to allow 20 drones to work together. The UN report calls the Kargu-2 a lethal autonomous weapon. It’s maker, STM, touts the weapon’s “anti-personnel” capabilities in a grim video showing a Kargu model in a steep dive toward a target in the middle of a group of manikins. (If anyone was killed in an autonomous attack, it would likely represent an historic first known case of artificial intelligence-based autonomous weapons being used to kill. The UN report heavily implies they were, noting that lethal autonomous weapons systems contributed to significant casualties of the manned Pantsir S-1 surface-to-air missile system, but is not explicit on the matter.)
