NYT: Fully autonomous Russian AI drone using Nvidia minicomputer killed 3 civilians in Zaporizhzhia
The New York Times reports that on July 6, a Russian drone guided entirely by an experimental AI system, without an operator, struck a gas station in Zaporizhzhia, killing three civilians. Ukrainian experts found an Nvidia Jetson Orin minicomputer inside the drone, believed to have made the targeting decision.
According to The New York Times, citing Ukrainian drone experts, military officials and forensic investigators, a Russian drone attack on a gas station in Zaporizhzhia on July 6 killed a 19-year-old university student and two men, aged 41 and 48. After examining the wreckage of that drone and other Russian Molniya drones that struck the city, investigators concluded the weapons operated fully autonomously.
Why experts believe the drones were autonomous
The drones carried no antennas for communicating with an operator, although they did have video cameras. The drone that killed the three civilians was flying in a group of about six, none of which was transmitting radio signals. The attacks on Zaporizhzhia came in waves, one large-scale strike following another.
Inside the drones, investigators found Nvidia Jetson Orin minicomputers, which cost only a few hundred dollars and are believed to have made the targeting decisions. Similar minicomputers have been found in other Russian weapons. Ukrainian officials said the minicomputer in the drone that struck Zaporizhzhia was not encrypted, allowing experts to view the terrain images loaded into it, which the drone used to stay on its programmed course. The drone's code reportedly showed what kinds of targets it had been trained to recognize and attack.
The drones are believed to work as follows: an operator programs the drone to head toward a general target, such as a gas station, and as it approaches, the drone independently selects its final target — for example, propane tanks — based on its prior training.
Ukrainian officials said some of the AI-equipped drones exploded during the attack while others failed to detonate and remained largely intact. They showed NYT reporters the wreckage of two such drones, including the Nvidia modules inside. The wreckage of the drone that killed the three civilians was not shown in the article, though Ukraine had found similar wreckage — lacking an antenna but containing a camera and minicomputer — even before the July 6 attack.
Testing continues on both sides
Both Russia and Ukraine are experimenting with AI across several drone models. Until now, machine vision has mainly been used in the final stage of an attack, automatically locking onto a target an operator had already chosen. Fully autonomous AI is intended to remove the human from that final decision.
Ukraine said Russia has been testing autonomous AI drones in Zaporizhzhia since May. Meanwhile, in Russian-annexed Crimea, Ukraine's armed forces are conducting their own tests of AI systems that select targets independently, former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said. No deaths from those tests have been reported so far.
