{"id":1627,"date":"2020-12-07T20:29:03","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T20:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/?p=1330755"},"modified":"2020-12-07T20:29:03","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T20:29:03","slug":"iranian-nuclear-scientist-allegedly-assassinated-via-killer-robot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=1627","title":{"rendered":"Iranian nuclear scientist allegedly assassinated via killer robot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A top nuclear scientist with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a branch of Iran\u2019s military services, was assassinated on 27 November in what the Iranian government is calling an assassination via AI-powered machine gun.<\/p>\n

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated while traveling in a convoy outside of Tehran. According to reports, a Nissan pickup truck equipped with a mounted machine gun caught the convoy and opened fire. Moments later, the truck exploded.<\/p>\n

According to IRGC Deputy Commander Ali Fadavi, per a report<\/a> from Iranian state-controlled media outlet Tasnim News Agency, \u201cNo hit man was present at the scene of the strike\u201d when the scientist was attacked.<\/p>\n

The report continues:<\/p>\n

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A machine gun equipped with a \u2018satellite-controlled smart system\u2019 and installed on a pickup had fired a total of 13 shots in the attack.<\/p>\n

All other bullets were fired by the body guards, Fadavi noted.<\/p>\n

The smart system controlling the machine gun had zeroed in on Fakhrizadeh and utilized artificial intelligence, the general stated.<\/p>\n

He said the purpose of exploding the gun-laden pickup after the shootout was to kill the 11 IRGC servicemen accompanying the scientist.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It appears as though the Iranian government and Fadvai are asserting the attack was carried out entirely remotely. In such a case it would mean that the Nissan pickup truck used was either remote-controlled by a human or driven autonomously by AI.<\/p>\n

Supposing the claims are correct, it would mean that a terrorist organization or foreign government built a robot out of a Nissan truck and a machine gun then used satellite imagery to track, identify, and recognize Fakhrizadeh.<\/p>\n

Per the reports, the AI-powered machine gun fired into Fakhrizadeh\u2019s vehicle killing him and a bodyguard attempting to shield the scientist. Fakhrizadeh\u2019s wife, who Iranian officials claimed was mere centimeters away from him, was unharmed.<\/p>\n

Quick take:<\/strong> The big news here is all politics. Numerous experts<\/a> are pointing the finger at Israel, whose government has yet to confirm or deny responsibility. And some have even alleged the hit was approved and sanctioned by US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

While this accusation is, so far, unsubstantiated conjecture, it\u2019s not so far-fetched. Donald Trump authorized the use of a Reaper drone to assassinate IRGC General Qasem Soleiman<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n

But that may not be the big picture. This kind of killing is different from the drone strike Trump ordered in January. While both are extrajudicial (the US isn\u2019t at war with Iran), the drone strike used military equipment, paid for by US taxpayers, to conduct a strike at the request of the US commander in chief.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s substantiated that Fakhrizadeh\u2019s killing was conducted entirely autonomously \u201cwithout any assassin on the scene,\u201d as has been reported, it would be (to the best of our knowledge here at Neural) the first time a civilian production vehicle was converted into a killer robot and used to kill someone entirely autonomously.<\/p>\n

Published December 7, 2020 \u2014 20:29 UTC <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A top nuclear scientist with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a branch of Iran\u2019s military services, was assassinated on 27 November in what the Iranian government is calling an assassination via…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1627"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}