A View to a Kill (not the Duran Duran song)

"Making New Zealand predator free by 2050 sounds a crazy ambition. But maybe some crazy technology could achieve that.  What could possibly go wrong? Achieve New Zealand's Predator Free 2050 goal in double quick time by building an artificial intelligence-controlled killing machine. A robot system which sits in the bush with a night vision camera, animal recognition software, and an adapted paintball gun that can spit 1080 pellets." 

There has been a considerable amount written about AI technologies being applied to a wide variety of sectors. However, it is probably only in New Zealand that someone would have thought about developing AI technology to kill possums, rats or stoats (or other predators). If that does not sound strange enough, it appears that there could be plans for this kind of AI technology to be combined with drones. As the article says “what could possibly go wrong?”. Whilst this all sounds quite bizarre it does appear that this kind of solution is one credible approach for the NZ Government to achieve its stated “Predator Free 2050” goal. Only in NZ!

A view to a kill: Making NZ predator free with an autonomous kill-bot

The content above was originally posted on CMS DigitalBytes - CMS lawyers sharing comment and commentary on all things tech.