By David Hambling
Russia appears to be using anti-personnel mines in Ukraine (click here) that are equipped with artificial intelligence that is claimed to be able to distinguish between soldiers and civilians. While the mines supposedly comply with international law, experts doubt whether they are any less dangerous to civilians.
Human Rights Watch, a New York-based non-governmental organisation, reported the identification of POM-3 mines near Kharkiv, Ukraine, on 29 March. Separately, unverified video seems to show a Russian Zemledeliye truck launching mine-laying rockets.…
I do not believe for one minute artificial intelligence can determine whether a person striking the mine is a soldier or a civilian. That is something no civilian should have to trust. Laying landmines is a prevention of movement of people that have to leave Ukraine to survive the Russian killing spree. These landmine cannot detect the difference between a car with many people leaving Ukriane from a military vehicle. Don't believe a word of it.
Landmine detection is often an inexact and inefficient process, (click here) and that’s a problem that the ICRC is trying to solve. Doing so involves some surprisingly affordable off-the-shelf technology, a Danish geologist, a Japanese university, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a range of diverse field experience.
Landmines can be a deadly and costly obstacle to humanitarian access in conflict zones, a single explosive device containing the potential not just to maim or kill an individual but to block the delivery of food or medicine to an entire population. That’s why locating mines is “a very relevant competence, very much tied to operations,” explains Erik Tollefsen, a former bomb disposal officer and the head of the ICRC’s Weapon Contamination Unit (WEC).
Thermal imaging cameras that can detect different heat signatures between an object and its surroundings have been around for years, but only recently have they dropped in price and shrunk to the size of a palm-held GoPro. That miniaturization of price and product has opened up new possibilities...
