On this episode of China Uncensored,
the Chinese Communist Party is building a dangerous,
unthinking killing machine.
Just kidding, haha!
It's building a dangerous,
intelligent killing machine.
Hi, welcome back to China Uncensored.
I'm Chris Chappell.
Swarms of killer robots.
It sounds like something out of a movie.
Actually, several movies.
Star Trek.
The Matrix.
And most terrifying of all, Big Hero Six.
Now while this may sounds like science fiction,
humans are disturbingly close
to making killer robot swarms a reality.
And China may be leading the way.
What, are you surprised?
The Chinese Communist Party loves to draw inspiration
from dystopian sci-fi movies.
Like that facial recognition software
they're gonna use to predict crime before it happens.
And their plan to rank a billion Chinese citizens based on their behavior.
Well now, check this out.
The China Electronics Technology Group,
a state-owned enterprise,
just conducted the largest drone swarm test in human history.
And drone history.
Prepare to be terrified!
It's a bird!
It's a plane!
No, it's a swarm of tiny helicopter drones!
Okay, this footage is maybe not that scary.
Or...impressive.
But it represents a huge scientific breakthrough.
It's also a terrifying glimpse into the future of war.
The Chinese company got 119 drones in the air--
all communicating with each other in real time,
and coordinating their movements faster
and more precisely than human pilots ever could.
Sure, the US makes drones, too.
Like the Reaper Drones that go for $13 million a pop.
But drone swarms are in a different league.
Imagine thousands of small,
cheap drones moving together like a swarm of locusts.
They have an overall mission,
but the artificial intelligence software allow the drones
to make micro decisions on their own,
like where to fly at any given moment.
According to Financial Times,
"Beijing is now betting that swarms of drones
will become a weapon of the future."
A weapon of the future?
Come on!
They look like little toys.
"In theory, such swarms could feature drones fitted
with missiles or warheads capable of sophisticated attacks
designed to overwhelm defenses with their sheer numbers."
Oh.
That toy is for definitely for ages 18 and up.
This could actually give China
a huge military advantage over the United States.
China is rapidly trying to modernize its military.
They're spending about 150 billion a year to do it.
That still pales compared to what
the United States spends on its military,
which is about four times as much.
But an autonomous drone swarm that costs less
than a single US missile could completely overwhelm it.
Don't worry,
the US military is also developing drone swarm technology.
But the future of military dominance may rest in the hands
of the country that can make the most cheap electronics.
And if that's the case, well,
my bet would be on China.
If the US and Soviet Union were in an arms race,
you could say the US and China are swarms race.
Swarms Race?
No?
How about the Drone Wars?
Overall--beyond just swarms--
the US military leads the world in military drone use.
The US has about 7,000 drones.
China has only about 1,300,
and none have been used to attack real military targets.
The Chinese regime is already putting drones to use, though.
In July, it released 12 underwater drones to patrol
disputed territory in the East and South China Sea.
I wonder if they use technology stolen from that
US underwater drone they stole back in December.
And Chinese companies are also making drones for civilian use.
But in some cases,
they "have been co-opted to work for the PLA."
According to state-run media,
an online Chinese retailer says it has a drone
capable of making deliveries weighing about 450 pounds.
Which, let's face it, means it could carry a 450 pound bomb.
Or a basket of 450 one-pound bombs.
And of course, who could forget that the Chinese Communist Party
is already using drones to hunt down Tibetans
trying to flee the country.
But that's just the conventional drone technology they're working on.
A drone swarm is something very different--
because it involves much more complex artificial intelligence.
Drone swarms could change how wars are fought,
and they and bring with them a lot of serious ethical questions.
For a drone swarm to be functional,
the drones have to communicate with each other in real time.
That's a tremendous amount of data that a human operator
wouldn't be able to manage.
So individual drones need to be able to communicate
with each other and make split second decisions
as a group.
Kind of like a school of fish.
Fish equipped with bombs.
In other words,
you really need drones with artificial intelligence.
Now this technology doesn't fully exist yet,
but it is being developed.
And this raises an ethical question:
Once the autonomous drones are smart enough
to move around on their own and find targets,
what happens next?
What if that drone is designed to fire a missile
or drop a bomb?
Will there be a human in a room somewhere
who makes that decision,
or will the drone make that call on its own?
Now this is a huge debate in the West.
After all,
when drones can decide on their own to kill,
what once might have been called a war crime
could now be written off as a glitch.
First degree drone-slaughter.
That's why science and technology gurus
have been expressing concern.
Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking are among the many
who have been outspoken,
calling for bans on killer AI.
This kind of public debate
is what happens in the West where governments
are held accountable by the people.
The same can't be said for the Chinese Communist Party.
It's easy for the regime to censor a public ethics debate,
or to simply ignore people's feelings when making decisions.
The silver lining is,
there is one big obstacle to China
developing swarms of killer drones:
The Chinese military itself.
The People's Liberation Army is more of a political organization
than a modern military.
Generals are Communist Party officials,
most of whom have never seen combat.
And so they're more concerned about fighting
for their own political power within the military,
rather than establishing a capable fighting force.
This problem has made it difficult for the army
to adapt new technology or change its structure,
since that would mean shuffling people around,
and they'd fight for every bit of power.
According to the Financial Times,
"the competition for resources and funding is intense
amid a radical overhaul of the services.
Military leaders want expensive planes
and ships that rival American weapons."
So even if the Chinese regime is able to develop
killer swarms of drones,
its own generals might not be willing to use them.
But the future of cheap,
autonomous drone swarms could rewrite
the rules of modern warfare,
making the US military,
with its expensive top-heavy hardware,
vulnerable to an attack by a smaller,
more nimble opponent.
Or 10,000 small, nimble opponents.
Maybe international pressure can force
even the Chinese regime to put restrictions
on the use of autonomous drones in war.
But since the Chinese Communist Party has already
shown a love of Minority Report,
there's nothing stopping it from using them against the Chinese people.
What do you think?
Leave your comments below.
Along a some photos of yourself,
so the drones can find you.
Once again I'm your host Chris Chappell,
see you next time.
Did this episode terrify you?
Well, you should get on over to our website
ChinaUncensored.tv.
Every week, besides full half hour episodes we upload for free,
we also have other short fun articles,
sometimes about pandas.
Pandas are cute and cuddly.
Pandas will protect you from the drone swarms.
The pandas are absolutely not robots themselves,
waiting to strike when you're most vulnerable.
Visit ChinaUncensored.tv right now.