Meta to help develop new AI-powered military products

Palmer Luckey connected the aboriginal of warfare

Palmer Luckey connected making autonomous weapons for the U.S. and its allies | 60 Minutes 13:21

Meta is teaming with defence manufacture startup Anduril Industries to make subject products that usage artificial quality and augmented reality, the companies announced connected Thursday.

Anduril said successful a statement that the caller products volition supply "real-time battlefield intelligence" to soldiers successful the field, allowing them to marque decisions based connected data. "This integration volition alteration however warfighters see, consciousness and integrate battlefield information," the institution said.

Palmer Luckey, the 32-year-old billionaire down Anduril, said connected societal media that tapping into Meta's expertise successful virtual and augmented world exertion volition "save countless lives and dollars."

Since launching successful 2017, Anduril has sought to separate itself from defence manufacture contractors specified arsenic Boeing and Lockheed by highlighting its quality to some money and make products, alternatively than tapping national funding. The California-based startup creates unmanned, autonomous weapons that usage AI to place and prosecute targets. 

Luckey is the co-founder of Oculus, the VR institution that Meta, past called Facebook, bought in 2014 for $2.3 billion. 

"It's a scary idea, but, I mean, that's the satellite we unrecorded in," Luckey told analogous Sharyn Alfonsi successful a caller "60 Minutes" interview. "I'd accidental it's a batch scarier, for example, to ideate a weapons strategy that doesn't person immoderate level of quality astatine all."

"Meta has spent the past decennary gathering AI and AR to alteration the computing level of the future," said Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Meta, said successful a connection Thursday. "We're arrogant to spouse with Anduril to assistance bring these technologies to the American servicemembers that support our interests astatine location and abroad."

• Mark Zuckerberg
• Meta