"This technology constitutes the coming danger," cautions a defense consultant, that recently obtained a newly intercepted Russian drone.
It was no ordinary device as well, he discovered. Assisted by AI, the unmanned aerial vehicle can find and attack targets autonomously.
The consultant has inspected many drones in his role as the nation's defence forces consultant.
Unlike other models, the drone did not transmit or accept any signals, so could not disrupted.
Russian and Ukrainian militaries are experimenting with AI in the conflict, and for certain tasks are now deploying it, to assist in finding targets, intelligence collection and de-mining.
For the nation's military, AI has become indispensable.
"The armed forces receives more than 50,000 footage feeds [from the front line] monthly which are analysed by AI," states the defense official.
"This helps us quickly handle huge volumes of information, pinpoint objectives and place them on a map."
AI-Driven Technology as a Strategic Tool
AI-enhanced technology is seen as a tool that can enhance strategic planning, optimize resources and ultimately protect personnel.
But regarding unmanned weapons systems, it is also transforming the warzone.
The country's soldiers currently employ AI-based systems so that unmanned aircraft fix on a target and then operate independently for the final segment till the operation concludes.
Signal disruption cannot be done and destroying such a small flying object proves difficult.
In the future such technologies are expected to become completely independent armaments that are able to find and eliminate targets on their own.
All a soldier must do is tap a button on a mobile application, explains a tech executive, head of Ukrainian developer.
It will do the rest, according to him, finding the target, releasing munitions, assessing the damage and afterwards returning to base.
"And it would not even require flight experience from the soldier," he continues.
Defensive Systems and Future Developments
Interceptor drones with such autonomous capability might greatly enhance air defences against Russian long-range attack drones, like the notorious certain models.
"An AI-driven self-operating unit is superior to a person in numerous aspects," explains the executive. "It is sharper. It detects the objective sooner than a person. It can be more agile."
The deputy defence minister indicates that kind of system does not exist yet, but he suggests Ukraine is nearing finishing its creation. "They've partially integrated it in some devices," says the representative.
There could even be thousands of these technologies deployed by the year 2026, predicts Azhnyuk.
Concerns and Risks of Full Independence
But Local creators are wary of completely relying on military technologies that rely entirely on AI, without any operator input. The danger is AI might not differentiate a Ukrainian soldier from a Russian one, since both could be wearing the identical attire, notes an engineer, who declined to give his surname.
His company makes remote-operated machine guns, that employ artificial intelligence to automatically detect people and follow them. Because of concerns over accidental attacks, he states they avoid including an automatic shooting option.
"It can be activated, but we must gain further expertise and more feedback from the ground forces to understand when it is safe to employ this capability."
Ethical Issues and Global Rules
Additionally, there are concerns that AI-driven technologies will violate the rules of war. How can they avoid injuring non-combatants, or tell apart soldiers who wish to yield?
According to the official, the final decision in these cases must be made by a person, even if AI could make it "simpler to choose". Yet it's not certain that nations or militant factions will follow international humanitarian norms.
So neutralizing such technologies is even more critical.
How do you halt a "mass of unmanned craft" when jamming or using jets, tanks or missiles proves useless?
The nation's very effective "Spider Web" mission, when a hundred unmanned aircraft targeted Russian military airports in June, was probably assisted by artificial intelligence.
Numerous locals fear that Moscow will copy that tactic, not only on the battlefront but beyond it as well.
Ukraine's president warned the United Nations last month that AI was contributing to "the worst arms race in human history."
He urged global rules for the application of AI in armaments, and stated the issue was "just as urgent as stopping the proliferation of atomic arms."
