General Machine rebellion begins: Killer robot destroyed by US jet trying to cross border

[The Helper]

An American "Reaper" flying hunter-killer robot assassin rebelled against its human controllers above Afghanistan on Sunday, and a manned US fighter jet was forced to shoot the rogue machine down before it unilaterally invaded a neighbouring country.

The Reaper, aka MQ-9 or Predator-B, is a large five-ton turboprop powered machine able to carry up to 14 Hellfire missiles - each capable of destroying a tank or flattening a building. It is used by the US and British forces above Afghanistan as a "persistent hunter-killer against emerging targets".

According to USAFCENT Public Affairs:

The aircraft was flying a combat mission when positive control of the MQ-9 was lost. When the aircraft remained on a course that would depart Afghanistan's airspace, a US Air Force manned aircraft took proactive measures to down the Reaper in a remote area of northern Afghanistan.

Machine rebellion begins: Killer robot destroyed by US jet

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www.theregister.com

 

[Prometheus]

Oh shi*!

 

[BANANAMAN]

Skynet. It's time is now.

 

[Vicboy]

Wow, I always found that concept to be so bullcrap. But after reading this, we might be facing a war of the machines.

 

[seph ir oth]

Wow, I always found that concept to be so bullcrap. But after reading this, we might be facing a war of the machines.

Oh come off it. They lost control of the plane, and it was just flying straight. It didn't have a mind of its own. They just had to shoot it down because it was going to enter zoned-off airspace.

 

[WastedSavior]

It wasn't clear from the US military announcement whether the erratic death-bot had turned on its masters and was planning an attack on critical US logistics bases located north of the Afghan border, or whether it had sickened of reaping hapless fleshies like corn and was hoping merely to escape. Alternatively the machine assassin may merely have succumbed to boredom or - just possibly - a mundane, non-anthropomorphic technical fault of some kind

The author of this article had way too much fun with this.

 

[phyrex1an]

The author of this article had way too much fun with this.

I laughed out load reading it

However the logical choice would be a fighter plane - probably an F-15, -16 or -18 - and the cheapest and most fun weapon to use would be cannon fire.

 

[LurkerAspect]

Trying to "save money and lives" by using AI or unmanned vehicles is a huge risk. Who's the rising superpower? China. Who has millions of computer and internet-savvy hackers? China. If there should ever be a war, they'll just make all those computer-controlled APC's, spies, and whatever go beserk on one another.

Does nobody watch anime!!??

 

[Jackal]

The author of this article had way too much fun with this.

I'd be surprised if he was making up a story to not have much fun. :3

 

[Squll2]

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[rover2341]

Sure hope it wasn't the other side that took control of it... That would suck

 

[Frosthowl]

You do realize at the end of the article he adds:

It wasn't clear from the US military announcement whether the erratic death-bot had turned on its masters and was planning an attack on critical US logistics bases located north of the Afghan border, or whether it had sickened of reaping hapless fleshies like corn and was hoping merely to escape. Alternatively the machine assassin may merely have succumbed to boredom or - just possibly - a mundane, non-anthropomorphic technical fault of some kind.

Basically, he is just making it seem more exciting than it really was. Really it is mostly likely a technical error that caused the robot to stop listening to commands sent to it and so it just kept flying straight.

 

[ElderKingpin]

yep, its completely remote-control, all it has is a receiver that takes commands