WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Air Force walked back comments reportedly made by a colonel regarding a simulation in which a drone outwitted its artificial intelligence training and killed its handler, after the claims went viral on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek said in a June 2 statement no such testing took place, adding that the service member\u2019s comments<\/a> were likely \u201ctaken out of context and were meant to be anecdotal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Department of the Air Force has not conducted any such AI-drone simulations and remains committed to ethical and responsible use of AI technology,\u201d Stefanek said. \u201cThis was a hypothetical thought experiment, not a simulation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The killer-drone-gone-rogue episode was initially attributed to Col. Tucker \u201cCinco\u201d Hamilton, the chief of AI testing and operations, in a recap from the Royal Aeronautical Society\u2019s FCAS23 Summit<\/a> in May. The summary was later updated to include additional comments from Hamilton, who said he misspoke at the conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\t