Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt Thinks US Army Should Eliminate 'Useless' Tanks and replace them with drones moving with artificial intelligence.
Speaking at Future Investment Initiative in Saudi Arabia this week, he said: "I read somewhere that the US has thousands of tanks stored somewhere." “Give them. Buy drones instead.”
The former Google executive's argument is that recent conflicts, such as the war in Ukraine, have demonstrated how "a $5.000 drone can destroy a $5 million tank."
In fact, even cheaper drones, similar to those marketed to consumers, have been shown in footage on social media dropping grenades through the open hatch of the tanks' turrets. Schmidt, who has been CEO of Google since 2001 until 2011, then executive chairman until 2015 and executive chairman of Alphabet in 2018, founded White Stork with the goal of supporting Ukraine's war effort. It hopes to achieve this by developing a low-cost drone that can use artificial intelligence to acquire its target instead of being guided by an operator, and can operate in environments where there is GPS interference.
Schmidt also served as chairman of the US government's National Security Committee on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI), which advises the President and Congress on national security and defense issues related to artificial intelligence.
"The cost of autonomy is falling so rapidly that drone warfare, which is the future of conflict, will eventually be freed from tanks, artillery, and mortars," Schmidt predicts.
