DARPA Just Gave Our Super Intelligent Overlords a New Weapon

Oxford University established the Future of Humanity Institute in 2005.

Its goal is obvious by the name: they study all the things that could end humanity's existence. Pretty important work.

The Director of the Institute is Professor Nick Bostrom. He made his choice for humanity's greatest threat very clear in his best seller "Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies".

For Mr. Bostrom, our biggest worry should not be climate change, or a pandemic, or a nuclear war. It's A.I.

According to Bostrom, as artificial intelligence is given the ability to grow and learn through access to the internet, it will evolve strategies to secure its dominance.

It will become a super intelligence. And at that point, there will be no way to stop it. Because we won't even understand what it's doing.

He's not alone in this theory. Elon Musk said there's a 20% chance AI's growth will end in our annihilation. Stephen Hawking put it bluntly: "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race."

We’re already living through the era of Chat GPT. A.I. is already superior to humans in medical diagnosis and computer programming. So it seems like it's already too late, that whatever moment we had to put guardrails on the technology has passed us by.

But we can find comfort in the fact there is still one hard line between humans and A.I. We're in the real world, controlling things. A super intelligent AI may be able to access military software, but it's always human beings at the helm.

AI can't exactly point a gun to our head. Until now.

In February, 2025 the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) put a revolutionary prototype warship to sea. The USX-1 Defiant looks like a typical battleship on the outside at 180 feet long and 240 tons of gray steel.

Its exact armament is classified, but there are weapons on board – it's built for combat.

But it isn’t what’s on board that is disturbing. Here's what you won't find inside its hull: living quarters, a galley, corridors and access ways, a system to circulate air, and bathrooms.

The USX-1 Defiant doesn't need those accommodations because it has no humans on board. There is no crew. Other ships have auto pilots, which human crew members can activate when needed.

But DARPA's new technological marvel has no place for a human being at all.

Through artificial intelligence, the Defiant can stay at sea months at a time entirely without human supervision. The Defiant can autonomously navigate, avoid collisions and bad weather, and even refuel – all while obeying maritime regulations. We hope.

The sea testing begins this month.

The craft is called a NOMARS – No Manning Required Ship. Simple name for a complex technology.

The stated goal for NOMARS is actually to help humanity. It's not meant to lead combat missions, but rather take on more mundane duties like escorting other ships, or routine patrols, so crewed ships are free to focus on the important missions.

But the Defiant's capabilities are lethal.

According to DARPA, the warship is made for combat with an ability to handle dangerous seas with "stealth and survivability". All entirely controlled by software.

It may pose no danger today, but the fact NOMARS exists is a step toward a future where battleships on the horizon will have no human on board to answer the question: what are your intentions?

Sources

https://www.darpa.mil/research/programs/no-manning-required-ship

https://newatlas.com/military/usx-1-defiant-the-warship-without-crew-any-place-one

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/12/nick-bostrom-artificial-intelligence-machine

https://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12909-023-04698-z

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking