How Ukraine is using cheap AI-guided drones to deadly effect against Russia

A HUNDREDS OF METERS above a white Lada sedan, the drone locks on its target: the red lights turn blue. AI takes over and the drone swoops down to kill him. The Lada was spared at the last moment, the drone being only two meters away. The mission is a test carried out on a field outside kyiv to refine the system. But this technology is already deployed by dozens of Ukrainian units on the front line. “It’s the best feeling to see your drone enter a small opening in an enemy trench,” explains Denys, an engineer at The Fourth Law, the Ukrainian company that makes these autonomous drones. “I was a pacifist, but the war in Russia deprived me of this privilege.”