Oculus founder Palmer Lucky’s latest toy is a high-speed drone

Palmer Lucky, the guy who beat Trump Founder of Oculus virtual reality headt is diving into the world of autonomous military aircraft. On Thursday, Anduril, Lucky’s venture capital fund military technology companyhas unveiled its new AI-powered, autonomous, fighter-like aircraft that the company has named “Fury.” Anduril said it plans to integrate Fury into its “Lattice” AI surveillance system, currently deployed at the US border to serve as a “virtual wall”. Anduril’s announcement comes amid a new push by US Department of Defense ARRIVE Acquiring new, low-cost AI systems at scale.

The Fury aircraft was actually designed and manufactured by another company called Blue Force Technologies, which Anduril officially acquired on Thursday for an unspecified amount. Anduril defines Fury as group 5 level (That’s the highest level) autonomous aircraft capable of “fighter-like performance.” Anduril said the aircraft, capable of reaching speeds of more than 700 miles per hour, can be equipped with a variety of sensors and payloads depending on mission requirements. Based on that description, it sounds like the Fury could be deployed for both surveillance and combat operations. in one Press Release, Anduril pointed to the US Department of Defense as a potential partner.

“These new capabilities are critical to maintaining deterrence in an era of strategic competition,” the company said. “To project force, deter aggression and regain reasonable volumes, the Department of Defense will need to rely on larger numbers of smaller, lower-cost and more autonomous systems.”

“Its [Anduril’s] The goal is to support the Department of Defense and allied militaries in deploying autonomous systems and artificial intelligence as quickly as possible,” the company added.

DoD spokesman Jeff Jurgensen told Gizmodo that the agency could not comment when asked whether Anduril had reached out regarding the Fury aircraft.

“The ministry does not comment on specific M&A cases or potential future contractual activities,” Jurgensen said. “As a result, we have no information or statements to provide.”

Anduril did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment.

Anduril tries to cash in on the AI ​​arms race

Anduril plans to integrate the Fury aircraft into the Lattice system, which acts as an AI-driven command center, overseeing its many connected military technology tools. human operator, based on an Anduril blog post, it is possible to log into Lattice to control groups of robot assets. The company believes that this collection of autonomous systems working in parallel can process data faster and more accurately than human operators. A version of Lattice is now integrated into a collection of giant surveillance towers spread across the US and Mexico border. Customs and border patrol use more than 100 of those towers to monitor people crossing the border.

Although it is unclear whether the US military wants to buy Anduril’s Fury aircraft in particular, Pentagon leaders often express a desire to increase the military’s autonomous capabilities. In his speech this week, first discovery of The Wall Street Journal, DoD Under Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said the Pentagon plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming years to produce a fleet of thousands of AI systems in the air, on land and at sea. . This initiative, called Project Replicator, aims to maintain a technological edge with the Chinese military.

“We are not at war,” Hicks said in the speech. “We’re not looking to start a war, but we have to be able to get this department to act with the same urgency because of China [People’s Republic of China] no waiting,”

DoD is not new to autonomous systems. DARPA, the Pentagon’s ambitious research and development arm, has has spent decades paving the way for advancements in self-driving cars, autonomous helicopters and even autonomous fighter jets, fighting dogs. Still, critics have accused the agency of being slow to deploy these systems in active combat operations due to cost and ethical concerns over AI accountability. But that somewhat cautious approach may be about to change.

In recent times interview with Breaking Defense, Lucky said he believes the recent cultural explosion of interest in AI brought about by OpenAI’s ChatGPT has increased interest in Anduril’s AI military technology by government leaders and politicians have been reluctant to embrace or care about technology.

“It sounds crazy, but it’s absolutely true,” Lucky said. “There are a lot of people in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill who had that come-to-Jesus moment just because of the hype cycle around ChatGPT, which I’m excited to leverage to get them excited about the future. hybrid.”

More information about Palmer Luckey:

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