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Slaughterbots

Future of Life Institute2 HN recommenders · recommended in 2 months, 2018–2025
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other · general · evergreen · 2018–2025 on HN

An 8-minute fictional short film, made by campaigners for a ban on autonomous weapons, depicting swarms of cheap AI-guided micro-drones used to kill targeted people. It ends with a call to action against autonomous weapons.

HN cites it whenever drone swarms or autonomous weapons come up, as a dramatized warning that now feels increasingly plausible.

12 comments from Hacker News

@amarcheschi2024-12 · in “Slaughterbots – if human: kill() [video]”

There is another slaughterbots video that's worth watching, ▶ this video There's also a real video by anduril industries about this not anymore fictional scenario link

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@pierrec2018-10 · in “The Era of the Drone Swarm Is Coming”

I'm surprised there's no mention of the short film "Slaughterbots" on this exact topic: ▶ this video It's very well done and has an HN vibe to it (with a dark twist, of course).

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@echelon2025-06 · in “YOLO-World: Real-Time Open-Vocabulary Object Detection”

7 years ago, this felt like science fiction: ▶ this video Now that we've seen the use of drones in the Ukraine war, 10k+ drone light shows, Waymo's autonomous cars, and tons of AI advancements in signals processing and planning, this seems obvious.

@archagon2025-02 · in “Palantir designed to 'power the West to its obvious innate superiority' says CEO”

Now I'm convinced that these degenerates saw the Slaughterbots[1] video and thought "what a great idea!" Tyranny as a service is coming and the techno-fascists are thrilled to be in control. Welcome to the torment nexus. [1]: ▶ this video

Critical View on HN
@runlevel12022-06 · in “Axon wants to make taser drones for schools despite ethics board’s concerns”

Why require RF at all? An attacker could give the drone a location they know their target will be at and let the drone autonomously guide itself to the target. [This dramatization][^1] focuses on full autonomy, but I'd argue it applies just as much to the steps leading up to it. All the more reason to take this threat seriously now. [1]: ▶ this video