Australia is developing a new type of submarine that will be powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and will have no human crew. The project is being driven by a contest between the US, its allies and China to develop AI-controlled weapons that will operate autonomously, including warships and fighter jets.
The Australian Navy is taking two very different approaches to this new technology. One is to develop a fleet of nuclear-powered attack submarines, which will be the most expensive and time-consuming option. The other is to develop a smaller fleet of unmanned submarines, which will be much cheaper and faster to build.
The unmanned submarines, called Ghost Sharks, are being developed by the US defense contractor Anduril whose Australian subsidiary is building the Ghost Shark subs for the Australian Navy. Anduril is also aiming to build this type of sub for the United States and its allies, including Britain, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and customers in Europe. They are about the size of a school bus and can be deployed quickly and easily. They are also much cheaper than nuclear submarines, costing just over AUD$23 million each as compared with nuclear subs costing AUD$28 billion ($18 billion) apiece. That is less than a tenth of 1% of the cost of each nuclear sub Australia will get. And the Ghost Sharks will be delivered by mid-2025. The drone uses Nvidia processing units originally designed for self-driving cars.
In May 2022, Anduril also announced that Royal Australian Navy signed a $100M contract to develop and build three Extra Large Autonomous Undersea Vehicles (XL-AUVs).
The development of autonomous weapons is a controversial issue. Some people argue that these weapons are too dangerous and could be used to kill without human intervention. Others argue that they are necessary to deter aggression and protect national security.
The race to develop autonomous weapons is likely to continue, as the US, China and other countries seek to maintain their military dominance. The outcome of this competition could have a profound impact on the future of warfare.
See more here.
It is interesting to note that, for the time being at least, if you want to get into the AI business, you need Nvidia’s A100 and H100 graphical processing units (GPUs). Nvidia's major shareholders include, you guessed it, Vanguard and BlackRock and the chip production is in Taiwan at the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the only chip-fabrication outfit in the world that can make them.
Comments
Post a Comment