Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps A.I., Iran, & Automated War with Prof. Toby Walsh
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Mar 2, 2026 Toby Walsh, Chief Scientist at the UNSW AI Institute and leading voice on AI and autonomous weapons, joins briefly before a UN trip. He discusses drones, precision munitions and how AI is reshaping targeting and wargaming. They cover Pentagon-AI contractor clashes, autonomy in navigation and vision, risks of faster escalation, proliferation of cheap drones, and calls for bans on weapons that target humans.
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Truck Launched Drones Struck Russian Airfield
- Ukraine used low-cost drones to destroy high-value Russian assets far inside enemy territory.
- Walsh recounts a semi-trailer releasing small drones to wreck jets on a Russian airfield as an example of asymmetric impact.
Drones Navigate Like Self Driving Cars
- Modern autonomous drones increasingly navigate without radios or GPS using computer vision.
- Walsh compares drone navigation to Tesla cars using cameras and visual landmark recognition plus inertial navigation.
AI Lowers The Threshold For Deadly Conflict
- Even if AI reduces collateral harm, it still changes the character and cadence of war toward faster, more lethal operations.
- Walsh warns faster automated targeting can kill all humans near a battlefield because machines outperform human tolerance thresholds.