{"slug": "killer-drone-guided-by-ai-slaughters-3-ukrainians-sparking-grave-fears-living-in", "title": "Killer drone guided by AI slaughters 3 Ukrainians, sparking grave fears: ‘Living in a ‘Terminator’ movie’", "summary": "Three Ukrainian civilians were killed in a Russian drone strike at a gas station in Zaporizhzhia, marking the first documented case of AI-guided drones causing civilian deaths, according to the New York Times. The drone, equipped with an Nvidia Jetson Orin minicomputer, autonomously selected its target without human intervention, raising fears about the future of warfare. Col. Serhiy Minaiev, commander of Ukrainian air defenses in Zaporizhzhia, warned, 'In a few years, we will be living in a 'Terminator' movie.'", "body_md": "# Killer drone guided by AI slaughters 3 Ukrainians, sparking grave fears: ‘Living in a ‘Terminator’ movie’\n\nSee more of our coverage in your search results.\n\n[Add The New York Post on Google](https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=nypost.com)\n\nThree Ukrainian civilians were slaughtered by Russian drones that were guided by artificial intelligence, marking an ominous escalation in warfare’s robotic age.\n\nTetiana Bubynets, 19, a university student, and two others were blown to bits last month at a gas station in the city of Zaporizhzhia by a drone outfitted with an experimental artificial intelligence system that decides, without a human operator, where to strike,[ the New York Times reported.](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/world/europe/russia-drones-autonomous-ai-kill-ukraine-war.html)\n\nThe drone, which looked like a model airplane, was programmed to fly towards the gas station, but once it closed in, an AI system autonomously chose its target — most likely propane tanks — based on its training to recognize such objects, experts and military officials told the paper.\n\n“This is a risk for the whole world,” said Col. Serhiy Minaiev, the commander of Ukrainian air defenses in Zaporizhzhia.\n\n“In a few years, we will be living in a ‘Terminator’ movie. It’s no joke. Machines are making decisions to strike.”\n\nDebris recovered from the gas station and other strike sites around the city revealed that the drones were running on Nvidia minicomputers that determined where the drone would detonate, officials and experts said.\n\nNvidia produces the majority of the chips powering the world’s most advanced AI systems and confirmed that the module found in the drone was a Jetson Orin minicomputer, a low-cost system that has been found on other Russian weapons, according to The Times.\n\nNvidia described the system as a consumer-grade product available for students, developers and start-ups “for a wide range of beneficial applications.”\n\nNvidia sells the computer in several countries but not in Russia — although it’s widely available through resellers.\n\nThe July 6 gas station attack would be the first documented case in which self-targeting AI Russian drones caused civilian deaths, Kateryna Bondar, a senior fellow at the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.\n\nThe presence of an Nvidia module “is the best proof” that Russia has been experimenting with autonomous AI on the battlefield, she said.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/killer-drone-guided-by-ai-slaughters-3-ukrainians-sparking-grave-fears-living-in", "canonical_source": "https://nypost.com/2026/08/24/world-news/killer-drone-guided-by-ai-slaughters-3-ukrainians-sparking-grave-fears/", "published_at": "2026-08-24 13:36:15+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-24 13:44:56.429083+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-ethics", "ai-policy", "autonomous-vehicles"], "entities": ["Tetiana Bubynets", "Nvidia", "Jetson Orin", "New York Times", "Serhiy Minaiev", "Kateryna Bondar", "Wadhwani AI Center", "Center for Strategic and International Studies"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/killer-drone-guided-by-ai-slaughters-3-ukrainians-sparking-grave-fears-living-in", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/killer-drone-guided-by-ai-slaughters-3-ukrainians-sparking-grave-fears-living-in.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/killer-drone-guided-by-ai-slaughters-3-ukrainians-sparking-grave-fears-living-in.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/killer-drone-guided-by-ai-slaughters-3-ukrainians-sparking-grave-fears-living-in.jsonld"}}