
Military robots with “operator awareness” are being tested in the Santa Cruz mountains
Scout AI company is developing combat robots capable of acting like soldiers. Founders Colby Addock and Collin Otis are creating not just smart drones, but a military artificial intelligence model called Fury.
The essence of the technology lies in creating a perception-language-action model that allows robots to see the surrounding world. Understand natural language commands and control their mechanical systems. Even in conditions of no communication or GPS signal. The company is already testing prototypes of ground and air vehicles in the Santa Cruz mountains.
The key advantage of Scout AI is the modularity of the system. Fury can work on ordinary commercial components and easily integrate with existing robotic platforms without the need to create specialized hardware. In essence, the technology allows significantly improving the capabilities of already existing military robots.
Special attention is paid to what they call a human-centric approach. Fury allows giving commands by voice or text and receiving intelligent responses. Which is fundamentally different from traditional control systems with buttons. The company claims that such an approach will provide a significant advantage on the battlefield, allowing one serviceman to coordinate the actions of multiple robotic systems.
Thus, the Scout AI project is as if forcing the transition from remotely controlled platforms to systems with tactical autonomy in decision-making. Which blurs the boundaries between operator and executor in military operations. The company itself says that its combat robots, I quote, allow acting with the “situational awareness of an experienced operator.” All this leaves many questions. As well as concerns.