While most people are worried about nuclear war with North Korea or the troubles in the Middle East, there is very little attention paid to the exponentially-advancing artificial intelligence and weaponized robots. Yes, robots that can kill without a human operator are already in the field and visionary entrepreneur Elon Musk says that pro-active regulations are not put in place to prohibit autonomous killing machines within four years, it may already be too late. Musk is famous for comparing work on AI to "summoning the demon" and calling artificial intelligence a "fundamental existential threat" to humanity.
 
Elon Musk's warning of artificial intelligence with the ability to kill may seem like a far-out problem for a future generation but fully autonomous killing machines are already in the field. One example of a fully autonomous robot with the ability to kill with precision up to 2 miles away is Samsung's SGR-A1, a robot designed to act as a sentry which is currently being used on the border between North and South Korea. 
The SGR-A1 is designed to kill with machine precision and no doubt it already has. It is thought to cost about $200,000 and it is unknown how many are currently in use by South Korea.
 
So there are autonomous killing machines on the ground, but what about in the sky? Meet Northrop Grumman's X-47B Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAS). The latest military drone created to demonstrate the ability to operate, carry out missions, and kill targets entirely on its own. 
 
The X-47B was developed by Northrup Grumman with the help of DARPA's J-UCAS program. It is a tailless jet-powered blended-wing-body aircraft is capable of semi-autonomous operation and can even refuel itself in mid-air. The X-47B is really just a prototype of an unmanned combat aerial system called the MQ-25 Stingray which is expected to hit the battlefield sometime in the 2020's. The unmanned combat vehicle is capable of firing missiles or dropping bombs from drop tank pylons. It will also be equipped with an array of surveillance technology which will make gathering data on the enemy possible without endangering a human pilot.
 
If the X-47B doesn't scare you, maybe these next machines will. Meet the "PERDIX", a micro-drone swarm system developed for the US DoD/Naval Air Systems Command for unmanned aerial surveillance. What makes these little guys so special is not so much on the outside, but rather what's on the inside. Each of the PERDIX micro-drones is not controlled in itself but instead, it shares a collective distributed "brain" that allows them to travel in leaderless "swarms". 
 
The PERDIX micro-drone swarm can be deployed from the air and can adapt to changes in drone numbers and remain coordinated with each other even if they are attacked and some are destroyed. Each PERDIX micro-drone comes equipped with a plastic body containing a lithium battery and a small camera. They are propelled by a 2.6-inch propeller at the rear and its onboard software can be updated to enable fine-tuning and improvements without having to manufacture a new one. The Department of Defense plans to produce the drones in batches of a thousand in the very near future.
