American robotics company Foundation Future Industries has revealed its plans to turn humanoid robots equipped with artificial intelligence into combat weapons by 2027.
The company's CEO, Sanket Pathak, confirmed on Thursday in an interview with Euronews that the company has already tested its human-like robots, known as "Phantoms", in Ukraine to carry out non-combat missions. Pathak predicted that testing the use of these robots as direct weapons will begin as early as next year, after the completion of initial test programs on the Ukrainian front.
The goal of sending human robots into the field is not to cause indiscriminate destruction, but to provide a high level of accuracy and avoid damaging infrastructure and buildings or injuring civilians during complex military operations, especially with the increasing risk to the lives of human soldiers in ground combat, Pathak said.
International Concerns and UN Sponsored Efforts
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned of the dangers of "lethal autonomous weapons systems", which he described as "killer robots", warning of the danger of machines that choose their targets, carry out their attacks and rob lives without any human control or control.
According to a European media report, since 2023, the United Nations has been leading ongoing negotiations through the "Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons" to reach an international treaty regulating these technologies, amid urgent efforts by the Secretary-General to impose a binding ban on autonomous weapons that operate without direct human control.
On the other hand, Pathak said he sees no reason to treat humanoid robots differently from current precision weapons such as drones, ruling out the hypothesis that AI will dominate armed robots and asserting that the biggest threat currently lies in cyberterrorism and the misuse of open-source models.
New Generation and Notable Investment Financing
The developer has announced the start of the manufacture of its second-generation "Phantom 2" machines based on lessons learned from harsh field experiments in Ukraine.
The new version is designed to be waterproof and dustproof, raising the robot's carrying capacity to 80 kilograms from 30 kilograms in the first version, as well as raising the battery capacity to three kilowatt-hours and increasing the ability to withstand falls to very high degrees.
Economic reports accompanying the news revealed that the Foundation's investor base and financial backers include prominent names including Eric Trump, the son of US President Donald Trump, in addition to the famous payments company "Stripe" and the venture capital fund "Define".
The company said it currently rents commercial versions of its robots for about $100,000 a year per robot, while selling the devices to military customers at similar prices for reconnaissance, building disinfection, interior mapping and equipment transport.