The MSF Trauma Hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan (3rd October) didn't have this luxury and in the fog of war, [0] 12 MSF medical staff and ten patients were killed. [1],[2]

Killing by remote sensing, is indiscriminate. Adding AI is another order of stupidity.

References:

[0] http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/11/how-te...

[1] http://www.msf.org.uk/article/in-memoriam-msf-colleagues-kil...

[2] http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/06/doctors-witho...

True, read the Ars article: "The BMC crew is responsible for steering the aircraft to targets, identifying them, and shooting them; the aircraft's battery is slaved to the sensor suite for targeting." - Aircrew, well trained, professional. As ethical as you can get.

Now what happened is "A US special operations team on the ground, given coordinates of the Afghani NDS building by the Afghan forces they were working with, passed them to the AC-130. But when the AC-130 crew punched the grid coordinates into their targeting system, it aimed at an open field 300 meters away from the actual target. Working from a rough description of the building provided from the ground, the sensor operators found a building close to the field that they believed was the target. Tragically, it was actually the hospital."

Will adding AI to this situation make any improvement when the real issue is ' lack of a "common operating picture,"'?

This sort of thing: https://youtu.be/DTqa-NEwUbs?t=94

It could even drop "phone home" over radio, allow the operators to point out the targets at that point, and then fire.

But governments could greatly increase their capability for surveillance.

    > Adding AI is another order
    > of stupidity.

Boeing is developing compact portable laser weapons technology that could conceivably be mounted on drones.

http://www.livescience.com/52121-laser-weapon-destroys-test-...

If you look past the hype, lasers are far from ready.