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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Guardian staff

US colonel retracts comments on simulated drone attack ‘thought experiment’

A US Air Force drone flying over the Nevada test and training range on 14 January 2020.
A US Air Force drone flying over the Nevada test and training range on 14 January 2020. Photograph: William Rosado/US Air Force/AFP/Getty Images

A US air force colonel “misspoke” when he said at a Royal Aeronautical Society conference last month that a drone killed its operator in a simulated test because the pilot was attempting to override its mission, according to the society.

The confusion had started with the circulation of a blogpost from the society, in which it described a presentation by Col Tucker “Cinco” Hamilton, the chief of AI test and operations with the US air force and an experimental fighter test pilot, at the Future Combat Air and Space Capabilities Summit in London in May.

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