Robot Cannon Kills Nine People

[Kor37 9]

Robot-Cannon Kills Nine People

Posted Oct 19th 2007 8:46AM by Tim Stevens

Filed under: Computers

 

It's one thing to make (tasteless) jokes about exploding cell phones being the ultimate cause of human extinction, but when a robotic device seemingly goes out of its way to kill its operators, then something may be up. According to a post on Slashdot, a bug or glitch caused a robotic anti-aircraft gun In South Africa to flip out and kill nine soldiers (and injure a further 14).

 

Details are sparse, but a jam or internal explosion caused the gun to malfunction, resulting in it "wildly swinging" as it "sprayed hundreds of high-explosive 0.5kg 35mm cannon shells around the five-gun firing position," according to the post.

 

The gun is designed to automatically target aircraft, helicopters, and cruise missiles and fire when any targets come into range -- all without human intervention. The gun can even reload itself automatically when its magazines are emptied. As a result, the rogue robot gun could not be stopped before it completely ran out of ammunition, despite efforts from one brave artillery officer.

 

A disturbing reminder that our robotic minions are not always happy with their menial tasks and can strike at any time? Keep your eyes open, Roomba owners!

 

From Slashdot and Wired

Hmmm.....Skynet coming online maybe?..........