‘Thought Experiment’: US Air Force Colonel Retracts Comments on AI Going Rogue in Simulation Test

The US air force colonel who narrated the incident of AI technology going rogue during a simulation test at a Royal Aeronautical Society conference last month retracted his comments after the news went viral.

Col Tucker “Cinco” Hamilton, the chief of AI test and operations with the US air force said a drone killed its operator in a simulated test because the pilot wanted the drone to stop its mission and attempted to override it, according to a blogpost by the Royal Aeronautical Society.

The comments were made in May at the Future Combat Air and Space Capabilities Summit in London and the blogpost led to confusion and concern about the use of AI in warfare and defence.

Hamilton told those attending the event that during a simulation to test the AI-powered drone – which was instructed and trained to kill its targets – they witnessed some errors as the AI-powered drone refused to obey its operator’s instruction in some cases to not eliminate its targets and responded by eliminating the operator in the simulation by blowing the communication tower.

After the news went viral, sparking concerns, the US air force on Thursday evening denied the test was conducted, the Guardian said. The Guardian also said that the Royal Aeronautical Society released a statement pointing out that Hamilton retracted his comments and clarified that the “rogue AI drone simulation” was a hypothetical “thought experiment”.

“We’ve never run that experiment, nor would we need to in order to realise that this is a plausible outcome,” Hamilton said, according to the Guardian.

In May, Hamilton also highlighted the need to discuss the issues related to ethics when it comes to AI. “You can’t have a conversation about artificial intelligence, intelligence, machine learning, autonomy if you’re not going to talk about ethics and AI,” Hamilton was quoted as saying by the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Hamilton in his statement later said that even though the event did not happen it is “worthwhile” to consider when exploring the matter of whether and how to use AI in weapons.

“Despite this being a hypothetical example, this illustrates the real-world challenges posed by AI-powered capability and is why the Air Force is committed to the ethical development of AI,” he said in the statement where he clarified the meaning behind his previous comments made in May.

The US air force spokesperson Ann Stefanek said the colonel’s comments were taken out of context while speaking to the Insider.