Terminator-style robots that can speak and react to soldiers will be used by the British Army in battleground scenarios for the first time.
The machines, created with the same size head and torso as an average male, are fitted with AI software ChatGPT and can engage in conversation with soldiers in training sessions.
The robot, called SimStriker, then reacts based on how the soldier moves and speaks.
Calmer words can control the situation but if the soldier becomes angry the robot can become hostile, even firing BB pellets from its abdomen.
In one training scenario, soldiers encounter the SimStriker when entering a village where locals need food, electricity and medical supplies. The mood of the robot changes and it will become more antagonised if the soldier chooses to not provide help.
The technology can also be altered by an instructor watching from a safe room, who can alter the robot’s mood to make a more challenging scenario for the soldier.
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It is the first time soldiers can train against a “thinking” enemy and represents a new generation of intelligent training for soldiers in urban warfare environments.
Started in 2020, the SimStriker project is in use with personnel at 16 Air Assault Brigade in Colchester. It is fitted with sensors capable of accurately recording the precision and fire rate of soldiers.
A camera inside the robot’s forehead detects motion and light. It then sends a signal for the target to engage if it recognises someone entering a room.
When resting it can even burp to simulate a guard who isn’t paying attention. When alert it will say phrases such as “who’s there?” and can shout commands such as “stop” from a speaker located on its collarbone.
The robot was created by 4GD, a company set up by two former royal marines which provides combat training to soldiers through using virtual reality and special effects.
It has plans to develop the robot even further by virtually simulating organs on its torso to more realistically demonstrate battlefield injuries.
James Crowley, 4GD business development director, said: “Although it gives the impression of a terminator, unlike the movie we aren’t trying to subordinate soldiers to a robot. Rather, we want to use a robot to enhance the soldier.
“We want to use it to bring the training environment as close to the operating environment as possible. That’s why it shouts, talks and fires back. It is a leap forward in how the military can train for urban environments.”
The robot is a move away from static wooden targets which are still widely used to train soldiers for urban fighting.
Mr Crowley added that this “new generation of smart adversaries has increased the realism and effectiveness of soldier training”.
He hopes SimStriker will be rolled out across the military in future.
It comes as the Army has pivoted towards using AI more often in everyday life.
Earlier this year Capita, the outsourcing company responsible for recruitment, said it was using artificial intelligence to speed up the hiring of new soldiers amid a staffing crisis across the Armed Forces.
AI software is being used to process prospective recruits’ medical records provided alongside their application.
Last summer, Capita built its own AI software, it said, which its medical professionals use to scan and summarise these records. According to the company, it can cut the time needed to process would-be recruits’ medical records by almost a third.
It comes after the Ministry of Defence announced last year that fewer troops will be needed on future front lines because of the rise of AI.
In its updated Defence Command Paper in July 2023 under Ben Wallace, the defence secretary at the time, the MoD said it had drawn lessons from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
It added the conflict would “change the way we think about the ‘size’ of our Armed Forces”.
The paper set out the military’s intended future capabilities on the front line, including the use of robots, human augmentation to modify soldiers’ performance, and weapons using laser or radio frequency to discreetly target adversaries.
Meanwhile, a new Defence Strategic Review, announced earlier this year when the Labour Government took power, said it will focus on the changing nature of conflict.