Newtape Industries South Korea stopped the Ukrainian tests of military AI: partners stopped responding. The head of the startup, former artillery officer Joe Chou, told The Diplomat that the Ukrainian coordinator gave an order "from above" to stop the work. According to his story, the message came in mid-October. Cho considers the reason for the row between Kiev and Seoul over the publication of the transfer of 2 North Korean prisoners. It is not known who gave the order.
UKRAINE PRESIDENT VLADIMIR ZELENSKY SPOKE ABOUT THE TRANSFER OF MILITARY PERSONNEL TO SOUTH KOREA AT THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON SEPTEMBER 23. SEOUL ANNOUNCED A BREACH OF THE AGREEMENT TO KEEP IT SECRET, KIEV DENIED THE EXISTENCE OF AN AGREEMENT. SOUTH KOREAN AUTHORITIES HAVE CONSPIRED WITH THE SAFETY OF PRISONERS AND RELATIVES IN DPRK. THE DISPUTE OVER THE PUBLIC STATEMENT AFFECTED THE TRUST BETWEEN GOVERNMENTS. AFTER APOLOGIZING, ON OCTOBER 8, SEOUL ANNOUNCED THE RETURN OF ITS AMBASSADOR FROM UKRAINE. A FEW DAYS LATER, ACCORDING TO CHOO, THE UKRAINIANS OF THE COMPANY DISAPPEARED.
Newtape reached 2 military units with the help of the Canadian consulting company Response Group. In an interview in August, Chu explained that the military returns to testing when combat missions allow it. The developers received comments and gradually improved the program. In November, he described a complete blackout of communications, rejecting the explanation that the units were simply busy. The company itself canceled or indefinitely postponed the continuation of negotiations on tests and implementation. So the suspension of contacts became the suspension of Ukrainian work.
We tested Barbara, software that converts a voice report into structured data for a fire control officer. According to the developer's description, it marks possible errors in the coordinates and warns of a possible target in civilian territory. The decision to open fire is made by a person. In this case, an identification error can reach the officer already in a neatly formatted message. You should check both the program and the person's work with its guidelines.