Autonomous weapons are often viewed as an alarming potential consequence of advances in AI — but they may already have been used in combat. Libyan forces unleashed armed drones capable of choosing their own targets against a breakaway rebel faction last year.

Drone startups are taking aim at military customers. As large tech companies have backed away from defense work, startups like Anduril, Shield AI, and Teal are picking up the slack. They’re developing autonomous fliers specifically for military operations.

A panel of AI experts appointed by the U.S. government came out against a ban on autonomous weapons. A draft report from the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence recommends against a proposed international global prohibition of AI-enabled autonomous weapon systems.

U.S. lawmakers authorized a slew of national programs that promote artificial intelligence research, development, and deployment, and support efforts to make sure the results are ethical and trustworthy.

A fighter pilot battled a true-to-life virtual enemy in midair. In the skies over southern California, an airman pitted his dogfighting skills against an AI-controlled opponent that was projected onto his augmented-reality visor.

Some politicians and pundits believe that, in the AI era, the military with the most data wins. A new analysis disputes this notion. A report by Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology examines the relative strengths of the Chinese and U.S. militaries in AI.

An autonomous fighter pilot shot down a human aerial ace in virtual combat. Built by defense contractor Heron Systems, the system also defeated automated rivals from seven other companies to win the AlphaDogfight trial.

Unexploded munitions from past wars continue to kill and maim thousands of people every year. Computer vision is helping researchers figure out where these dormant weapons are likely to be.

A prominent AI researcher has turned his back on computer vision over ethical issues. The co-creator of the popular object-recognition network You Only Look Once (YOLO) said he no longer works on computer vision because the technology has “almost no upside and enormous downside risk.”

Which countries are ahead in AI? Many, in one way or another, and not always the ones you might expect. The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence published its 2019 Artificial Intelligence Index, detailing when, where, and how AI is on the rise.

Some politicians view international competition in AI as an arms race. That mindset could lead to escalating conflict, experts said.

A U.S. federal judge ruled that the public must be able to see records from a government-chartered AI advisory group. The court decided that the National Security Commission on AI, which guides defense research into AI-powered warfighting technology, must respond to freedom-of-information requests.

A new generation of battlebots is gaining momentum.What’s new: The Army is at least two years ahead of schedule in its plan to deploy self-driving (and self-aiming) transports, jeeps, and tanks.

The U.S. military is developing a new generation of automated weaponry. Some people are calling for automated generals as well.