AI Drones Fight in Ukraine

A single artificial intelligence drone can make an operator 10,000 times more effective, according to Yaroslav Azhnyuk, the founder of The Fourth Law in Kyiv. This claim reflects the current military reality in Ukraine, where autonomous systems are shifting the balance of power between Russia and Ukraine. Azhnyuk, who previously ran the pet camera company Petcube, states that facing an enemy with vastly superior capabilities creates an asymmetric advantage. He leads two defense firms, The Fourth Law and Odd Systems, which produce the Lupynis-10-TFL-1, an autonomous drone now used by dozens of Ukrainian military units.

The technology behind these drones differs from the large language models powering consumer apps or the self-driving systems in electric vehicles. Instead, the Lupynis-10-TFL-1 combines a small first-person-view drone with an onboard computer that takes control during the last 500 meters of its flight. This microcomputer runs on a deep-learning neural network trained on hours of combat footage. It identifies targets such as tanks, light-armored vehicles, and flying objects. Once a human pilot selects a target, the drone navigates independently to the impact point.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that artificial intelligence could lead battlefield decisions as soon as next year. This concern drives a high-tech arms race where both sides deploy AI-enabled systems. Azhnyuk acknowledges the ethical risks but argues they are not unique to AI. He compares the technology to the invention of fire or steel, noting that tools can be used for good or bad purposes. He emphasizes that humans ultimately decide how to use these tools.

In a test field outside Kyiv, engineers from The Fourth Law demonstrated the drone's capabilities. A team member using the call sign Stab described the setup, pointing to a camera and a microcomputer housed in a 3-D model. He explained that the computer contains the decision-making logic. During the test, a pilot known as Professor guided the drone to a dilapidated car on a dirt road. After locking onto the target, indicated by a red flash on the monitor, the pilot released the control stick. The drone flew itself to the car, constantly running algorithms to stay on course. Stab noted that the drone performed all actions independently while the pilot did nothing.

The company named the drone after Anatoliy Lupynis, a 20th-century Ukrainian poet and political activist who survived decades of Soviet imprisonment. The Fourth Law names all its weapons after Ukrainian intellectuals and artists killed or persecuted by Russians in the last century. Azhnyuk says this naming convention helps resurrect their memory and ideas. He insists the drones are not killer robots but function like calculators. He argues that if adversaries use AI for offensive decision-making, Ukraine must use it for defense to avoid losing.

Azhnyuk notes that AI systems can make decisions in microseconds, while human control takes minutes or hours. He believes that if Ukraine loses the war, there will be no opportunity to debate the ethics of AI. The immediate priority is survival. The Fourth Law continues to test these systems daily to ensure they are reliable and difficult to jam. Humans remain in the loop for target selection, a safeguard the company maintains to prevent the drones from going rogue.