Slaughterbots
What it is
Slaughterbots is a fictional short film, backed by Stuart Russell, depicting swarms of cheap autonomous drones that use facial recognition to assassinate targets. It was made to argue for banning autonomous weapons.
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN invokes it as the standard reference whenever drone swarms, autonomous weapons or military AI come up in the news.
- 4 people recommended it
- 4 different months
- 1 strong recommendations
- first 2018, last 2026
What HN commenters said
“if not, you must see the slaughterbots video.”
Fictional film on automated political violence by drones
malloryerik, 2018-08 · Strong recommendation · in “Venezuela President Maduro 'survives drone attack'”
“Slaughterbots [0] is a pretty good look at what can be achieved by refining and integrating technologies”
Shows what refining existing drone technologies could achieve
bicubic, 2018-11 · Recommendation · in “Fleets of drones could aid searches for lost hikers”
“see Stuart Russell's compelling short film”
Short film on machines killing without attribution
lwneal, 2020-01 · Recommendation · in “How the U.S. military thinks about AI [audio]”
“This brings to mind a great video which I've posted here a few times”
What happens when anyone can build killer drone swarms
jtsiskin, 2020-12 · Recommendation · in “A swarm of drones flying through heavy forest–while staying in formation”
Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.
Topics: killer robots, drone swarms, military ai, stuart russell, dystopian fiction
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