The US Air Force tried to smooth over comments made by one of its colonels, who last month said that an AI-controlled drone had “killed” its operator during a simulated exercise.
Col Tucker “Cinco” Hamilton, who heads AI testing and operations for the Air Force, made the comments during the Royal Aeronautical Society’s summit on Future Combat Air and Space Capabilities in London.
He described a simulation in which an AI-controlled drone realised its human operator was preventing it from earning points for killing certain targets – and decided to kill the operator instead.
“It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective,” Col Tucker was quoted in a blog post published by the Royal Aeronautical Society as saying.
“We trained the system – ‘Hey don’t kill the operator – that’s bad. You’re going to lose points if you do that’. So what does it start doing? It starts destroying the communication tower that the operator uses to communicate with the drone to stop it from killing the target.”
However, the Air Force says that Col Hamilton’s words were “taken out of context” and meant only to be “anecdotal”.
“The … Air Force has not conducted any such AI-drone simulations and remains committed to ethical and responsible use of AI technology,” said Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokeswoman.
“This was a hypothetical thought experiment, not a simulation.”
The use of AI in warfare is a hotly debated topic that ethicists have long wrestled with.
Peter Lee, a professor of applied ethics at the University of Portsmouth, describes himself as a “cautious advocate of AI-enabled weapons”, as long as they are developed within a legal and ethical framework.
He believes the simulation that Col Hamilton described was plausible.
“It is an absolutely credible example that an artificial intelligence-enabled weapon system could come up with such a scenario,” he told The National.
But Mr Lee, whose research focuses on the use of drones in war, said that while the scenario was certainly possible, the number of checks and balances that would have to be in place before such a drone even took off makes that potential outcome incredibly unlikely.
“It is not as if you create this massive system and then you're just unleashing it. At every stage of testing, you'd want to see, do I get predictable results? Do I get reliable results?”
Walls
Louis Tomlinson
3 out of 5 stars
(Syco Music/Arista Records)
TWISTERS
Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Starring: Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos
Rating: 2.5/5
ICC T20 Team of 2021
Jos Buttler, Mohammad Rizwan, Babar Azam, Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, David Miller, Tabraiz Shamsi, Josh Hazlewood, Wanindu Hasaranga, Mustafizur Rahman, Shaheen Afridi
Company Profile:
Name: The Protein Bakeshop
Date of start: 2013
Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani
Based: Dubai
Size, number of employees: 12
Funding/investors: $400,000 (2018)
Dr Afridi's warning signs of digital addiction
Spending an excessive amount of time on the phone.
Neglecting personal, social, or academic responsibilities.
Losing interest in other activities or hobbies that were once enjoyed.
Having withdrawal symptoms like feeling anxious, restless, or upset when the technology is not available.
Experiencing sleep disturbances or changes in sleep patterns.
What are the guidelines?
Under 18 months: Avoid screen time altogether, except for video chatting with family.
Aged 18-24 months: If screens are introduced, it should be high-quality content watched with a caregiver to help the child understand what they are seeing.
Aged 2-5 years: Limit to one-hour per day of high-quality programming, with co-viewing whenever possible.
Aged 6-12 years: Set consistent limits on screen time to ensure it does not interfere with sleep, physical activity, or social interactions.
Teenagers: Encourage a balanced approach – screens should not replace sleep, exercise, or face-to-face socialisation.
Source: American Paediatric Association
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
US PGA Championship in numbers
1 Joost Luiten produced a memorable hole in one at the par-three fourth in the first round.
2 To date, the only two players to win the PGA Championship after winning the week before are Rory McIlroy (2014 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) and Tiger Woods (2007, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational). Hideki Matsuyama or Chris Stroud could have made it three.
3 Number of seasons without a major for McIlroy, who finished in a tie for 22nd.
4 Louis Oosthuizen has now finished second in all four of the game's major championships.
5 In the fifth hole of the final round, McIlroy holed his longest putt of the week - from 16ft 8in - for birdie.
6 For the sixth successive year, play was disrupted by bad weather with a delay of one hour and 43 minutes on Friday.
7 Seven under par (64) was the best round of the week, shot by Matsuyama and Francesco Molinari on Day 2.
8 Number of shots taken by Jason Day on the 18th hole in round three after a risky recovery shot backfired.
9 Jon Rahm's age in months the last time Phil Mickelson missed the cut in the US PGA, in 1995.
10 Jimmy Walker's opening round as defending champion was a 10-over-par 81.
11 The par-four 11th coincidentally ranked as the 11th hardest hole overall with a scoring average of 4.192.
12 Paul Casey was a combined 12 under par for his first round in this year's majors.
13 The average world ranking of the last 13 PGA winners before this week was 25. Kevin Kisner began the week ranked 25th.
14 The world ranking of Justin Thomas before his victory.
15 Of the top 15 players after 54 holes, only Oosthuizen had previously won a major.
16 The par-four 16th marks the start of Quail Hollow's so-called "Green Mile" of finishing holes, some of the toughest in golf.
17 The first round scoring average of the last 17 major champions was 67.2. Kisner and Thorbjorn Olesen shot 67 on day one at Quail Hollow.
18 For the first time in 18 majors, the eventual winner was over par after round one (Thomas shot 73).
Trump v Khan
2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
FULL%20FIGHT%20CARD
%3Cp%3EFeatherweight%20Bout%3A%0D%20Abdullah%20Al%20Qahtani%20v%20Taha%20Bendaoud%0D%3Cbr%3EBantamweight%20Bout%3A%0D%20Ali%20Taleb%20v%20Nawras%20Abzakh%0D%3Cbr%3EBantamweight%20Bout%3A%0D%20Xavier%20Alaoui%20v%20Rachid%20El%20Hazoume%0D%3Cbr%3EFeatherweight%20Bout%3A%0D%20Islam%20Reda%20v%20Adam%20Meskini%0D%3Cbr%3EBantamweight%20Bout%3A%0D%20Tariq%20Ismail%20v%20Jalal%20Al%20Daaja%0D%3Cbr%3EBantamweight%20Bout%3A%0D%20Elias%20Boudegzdame%20v%20Hassan%20Mandour%0D%3Cbr%3EAmateur%20Female%20Atomweight%20Bout%3A%0D%20Hattan%20Al%20Saif%20v%20Nada%20Faheem%0D%3Cbr%3EFeatherweight%20Bout%3A%0D%20Maraoune%20Bellagouit%20v%20Motaz%20Askar%0D%3Cbr%3EFeatherweight%20Bout%3A%0D%20Ahmed%20Tarek%20v%20Abdelrahman%20Alhyasat%0D%3Cbr%3EShowcase%20Featherweight%20Bout%3A%0D%20Mido%20Mohamed%20v%20Yazeed%20Hasanain%0D%3Cbr%3EShowcase%20Flyweight%20Bout%3A%0D%20Malik%20Basahel%20v%20Harsh%20Pandya%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Other acts on the Jazz Garden bill
Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.
Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts.
Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
Polarised public
31% in UK say BBC is biased to left-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is biased to right-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is not biased at all
Source: YouGov
