Here’s some news to give you the heebie-jeebies. There is a vulnerability in trains where someone can remotely lock the brakes with a radio link. The railroad companies have known about this since at least 2012, but have done nothing about it.
Well, at first I wasn’t concerned — the rail network in the US is so complex and poorly run that it’s unlikely that I’d ever ride a train. But I thought that just as I heard one of the multiple trains that cruise through Morris, about a half-mile from my home, rumble through. That could be bad. Train technology is one of those things we can often ignore until something goes wrong.
For real scary, we have to look at the emerging drone technology. It’s bloody great stuff in Ukraine, where we see a Ukrainian/Russian arms race to make ever more deadly little robots.
Russia is using the self-piloting abilities of AI in its new MS001 drone that is currently being field-tested. Ukrainian Major General Vladyslav Klochkov wrote in a LinkedIn post that MS001 is able to see, analyze, decide, and strike without external commands. It also boasts thermal vision, real-time telemetry, and can operate as part of a swarm.
…
The MS001 doesn’t need coordinates; it is able to take independent actions as if someone was controlling the UAV. The drone is able to identify targets, select the highest priorities, and adjust its trajectories. Even GPS jamming and target maneuvers can prove ineffective. “It is a digital predator,” Klochkov warned.
Isn’t science wonderful? The American defense industry is also building these things, which are also sexy and dramatic, as demonstrated in this promotional video.
Any idiot can fly one of these things, which is exactly the qualifications the military demands.
While FPV operators need sharp reflexes and weeks of training and practice, Bolt-M removes the need for a skilled operator with a point-and-click interface to select the target. An AI pilot does all the work. (You could argue whether it even counts as FPV). Once locked on, Bolt-M will continue automatically to the target even if communications are lost, giving it a high degree of immunity to electronic warfare.
Just tell the little machine what you want to destroy, click the button, and off it goes to deliver 3 pounds of high explosive to whatever you want. It makes remotely triggering a train’s brakes look mild.
I suppose it is a war of the machines, but I think it’s going to involve a lot of dead people.
This isn’t exactly new. It has been years (decade?) since I saw a YouTube video about scary AI powered bots flying around and killing. Cooperating so that if required, multiple units would expend their meager explosive charge on an obstacle until they were past it.
The good news is that AI still isn’t very smart. The bad news is that it might not have to be.
dschultz @ #1 —”The good news is that AI still isn’t very smart.” I’m not sure that’s “good news”. I don’t think it makes it better to kill by accident rather than intentionally by one of those things.
Russia is allied with Iran. Iran has a score to settle with Trump. After all Iran has done for Russia in its terror war against Ukraine, Putin could transfer some of his new autonomous flying killing machines to the mullahs. The Revolutionary Guards could place them on a freighter registered to Panama. On a dark and stormy night, the drones could be released off the mouth of the Chesapeake and directed to proceed to a certain well known address in DC. Who’s going to stop them? Recently, there’ve been many drone sightings over military bases along the eastern seaboard, and not one was ever shot down. And there was the New Jersey drone flap a few months back, and the government either didn’t know whose they were, or they did and aren’t telling us. The upshot is, warfare is changing almost too fast for people to grasp.
Main link is registration-walled. I won’t be creating an account just to read one article.
Here is the source material: https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/ics-advisories/icsa-25-191-10
I did get this snippet from that 404 site: ““All of the knowledge to generate the exploit already exists on the internet. AI could even build it for you,” the researcher told 404 Media.”
“Who’s going to stop them?”
Supply chains control enforcement; Russia can’t produce many of the bits for advanced tech any more, and has to bypass sanctions already to source it from third parties and from China, which adds time and expense and restricts supply. And China is around 1-2 generations behind the curve as it is — they have one foundry making 7nm chips, TSMC and Samsung are at 3nm and looking to go to 2.
(The very best Russia has is 65nm, but typically is 90nm)
If you want to see what can happen when a train braking system doesn’t do what it’s supposed to with a train going through a town, check the Lac-Megantic disaster. That was human error but I’m sure other scenarios can result in the same outcome.
And in other words news: the White House has announced that Taco has chronic venous insufficiency. Not a terrible disease, but the aura of perfect health is somewhat tarnished. That explains the swollen ankles noted at some public events recently. It may also explain the “bruising” seen on his hands. It’s basically poor circulation which could be behind some of the other things noted lately like falling asleep at public events, slurred speech, and unclear thinking…but he’s had that for ages. The old dog is getting older.
It seems appropriate that self-driving technology would thrive in a space with less meat.
I was wondering about a cloud of small drones as air defense.
[has it really been so long?]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughterbots
I’d feel much safer if Murderbot was involved.
“You could have killed me!”
“There was a chance, yes — but everything turned out all right.”
We’ve become so very depedent on technology and computers and now increasingly AI.
That ain’t good and makes us so vulnerable when the tech doesn’t work or gets hacked or used by bad actors.
Yet I see no signs and little chance of people voluntarily changing things to go backwards in this regard (even when it might be the wisest choice for our safety, quality of life and more) – unlike, sadly, in terms of our social and cultural progress, Human rights, politics etc.. Sigh.
A big fucking worry.
A Polish train manufacturer was itself caught sabotaging and bricking engines in 2023 if serviced by third parties.
Follow-up: Gov investigations, criminal proceedings, and retaliatory SLAPP suits are ongoing. Trains were still being bricked as of December. Some had even shut down with passengers on board approaching a station.
Anduril? Really. First Palantir, now this?
What is it with tech fascists and Tolkien?
Fully-autonomous attack drones terrify me. Not because I’m worried about some sort of Terminator-style machine uprising, but because of the possibility of self-propelled minefields that can chase targets down.
As a tech writer I worked with said in a manual that I was reviewing long ago, “the answer is a double edged sword.” (I suggested she rephrase that and she did.) Tech has indeed brought horrors, like atomic bombs. It has also brought benefits like most of us probably would have died before the age of three if it wasn’t for medical technology. I don’t know how we have the good and prevent the bad, but I’m fairly sure it’s going to be good and bad for the foreseeable future. We’re not going to stop that ball from rolling down that hill. We can only try to kind of steer it in the good direction as best we can.
Ukraine is about to employ a new long range drone. They have recently demonstrated AI used in drones to seek out targets with no need for drone operators to guide their drones to a target.
“One of Ukraine’s newest strike drones—the UAC FP-1—travels as far as 1,000 miles with a warhead weighing up to 250 pounds…”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2025/05/07/ukraines-new-strike-drone-flies-1000-miles-with-a-large-warhead/
robro@7–
Venous insufficiency is basically varicose veins and is distinct from the arterial vascular diseases that cause mental decline. There is some overlap because they share a few risk factors (age, obesity, tobacco). Venous insufficiency almost never affects upper limbs. Hand or arm bruising is common with age-related skin fragility, especially in combo with aspirin (I don’t know if DT is on aspirin, but it’s not unusual at his age).
Aspirin, yes.
“The circulatory issue was not raised in Trump’s annual physical exam in April. That report said, “blood flow to his extremities is unimpaired.” It did note he takes aspirin for heart health, but concluded — as the memo Thursday states — that Trump “remains in excellent health.”” — https://www.npr.org/2025/07/17/nx-s1-5471453/trump-chronic-venous-insufficiency-swelling
Akira@13–
Anduril at least is the sword of one of the heroes of the saga. But Palantir? The communication and spy tool that deceives those who use it? That was captured and corrupted by the forces of malice?
Meh. Drones operated by optic wire is not dependent on radio.
But pattern recognition software would be useful as a back-up.
(imagine Iranians handing the stuff over to “deniable” assets that promptly head off to one of Taco’s favv golf courses).
Secret service agents of the future will have their hands full, spotting small dots in the sky and trying to identify them. A crow or a drone?
Murdoch media will of course use the stuff to spy on celebrities.
Our streets full of driverless taxis such as Waymo. ISIS terrorists book a Waymo ride to a hotel in downtown’s center. Their “luggage” is 250 pounds of high explosives. When the bomb is set, it scans for its GPS location. When it arrives near its destination it sets off the bomb. Who needs a high tech drone?
birgerjohansson @ # 20: Secret service agents of the future will have their hands full, spotting small dots in the sky …
In retrospect, I feel utterly baffled that apparently they didn’t have a single eye-in-the-sky on 7/13/24 in Butler, PA.
Guess you haven’t been paying attention. Drone warfare is truly terrifying! Way beyond what this sterile ad shows. Human controlled FPV (first person view) drones are hunting individual soldiers who are running in a panic from the drone. If they dodge the drone just pops up and makes another pass. With exceptional visual and thermal imaging they also drop ordinance directly on troops hiding or playing dead.
AI, so far, doesn’t show selective impact point selection like human operators can do. The humans can target fuel tanks on trucks, the vulnerable location on tanks and other armor, and even purposely put a hole right through the barrel of artillery. Human controllers, however, cannot do that when active electronic warfare countermeasures are being used. Even just being below the radio horizon at long distance makes this precision impossible. That is when AI becomes effective (and fiber optic controlled drones).
Drone warfare may be the future, but it may also just be effective for a moment of time. The US has paid lip service to drones as a threat and a weapon in the past. That has changed, but likely we will be spending massively to fight the last conflict once again.
@5 John Morales
Who’s going to stop them?”
Supply chains control enforcement; Russia can’t produce many of the bits for advanced tech any more, and has to bypass sanctions already to source it from third parties and from China, which adds time and expense and restricts supply.
You may have not noticed but Russia, in the last 2-3 days, has launched attacks with 500 to 700 cruise missiles /drones and, perhaps 10 -18 ballistic missiles on Ukraine, mainly it looks like in various industrial areas of Kyiv.
Russia clearly cannot produce “anything” though I suspect you are correct that Russia may need Chinese electronics in many cases.
You may not have noticed, but Ukraine is ramping up its drones and antidrone drones and all that stuff even mofe.
I checked with BB:
Here’s a succinct comparative table outlining current Russian vs Ukrainian drone production trends:
🇷🇺 Russia
🇺🇦 Ukraine
Produces ~100 Shahed drones/day, aiming for 500/day
Monthly UAV output surged from 20K to 200K
Central facility: Alabuga SEZ, with 48 hubs by 2030
Distributed domestic production targeting 10M drones/year
Key models: Shahed-136/238, Geran-3 (jet-powered variants)
Diverse fleet: FPVs, interceptors, ground robots, long-range
AI navigation, Telegram-based control, altitude shifting
AI guidance, fiber-optics, electronic countermeasures
Heavy reliance on Chinese components via sanctions loopholes
Emphasis on local innovation and agile development
Tactical focus: mass saturation, strategic strikes
Tactical focus: precision hits, battlefield adaptation
Doctrine: overwhelm defenses via volume
Doctrine: drone-first warfare (≈80% of attacks)
Targets: power grids, infrastructure, airbases
Targets: Russian logistics, airbases, infrastructure
Let me know if you’d like this recast as timeline, vector schematic, or doctrinal shift model.
[I’d format it as a table, but that needs LaTex and looks shitty. It’s a comparative list]
Basically, Ukraine is the best at the drone stuff. Russia is second-best, because of, you know, warre.
Another one:
Another recent Ukrainian exploit was smuggling truckloads of drones deep into Russia – apparently carried by unsuspecting truck drivers – then unleashing them all simultaneously to attack bombers on the ground. (I never saw anything about the route(s) by which they entered Russia – presumably not direct from Ukraine.) I then saw it suggested that one state could “seed” an actual or potential enemy with large numbers of such drones, sent in shipping containers, to be unleashed as the first stage of an attack, aimed at disrupting the target military. In response, I noted that the attacker would not know whether its own territory had been similarly seeded; and that this was a possible form of mutual deterrence, perhaps less dangerous that nuclear MAD.