Swarms of killer AI drones might sound like the plot of a dystopian science-fiction thriller. 

But in a terrifying glimpse of the future, one scientist has shown just how easy it already is to build an ‘assassination drone’ that can hunt down and kill people.

In just a few hours, Luis Wenus, an engineer and entrepreneur, converted a $115 (£89.99) drone into the basis of a deadly weapon.

Using AI facial recognition the drone was programmed to recognise individuals and race towards them at full speed.

Although Mr Wenus says he built the drone ‘for a game’ he also says he wanted to raise awareness for how easily this could be used for a deadly terrorist attack.

Killer drones were the inspiration for the 2019 sci-fi horror film The Drone, but they may be closer to reality than we though be closer than we think and even easier to make than previously thought

Killer drones were the inspiration for the 2019 sci-fi horror film The Drone, but they may be closer to reality than we though be closer than we think and even easier to make than previously thought

Killer drones were the inspiration for the 2019 sci-fi horror film The Drone, but they may be closer to reality than we though be closer than we think and even easier to make than previously thought

In a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, Mr Wenus and his engineer colleague, demonstrated how a commercial drone can be programmed to chase down targets.

In the post, Mr Wenus writes: ‘I thought it would be fun to build a drone that chases you around as a game.’

However, the terrifying video quickly shows how dangerous this technology could really be.

The drone uses an AI ‘object detection model’ to recognise faces using its onboard camera.

Once it sees a face, the drone is programmed to try and keep it in the centre of its view and fly directly forward, chasing down its target. 

In one mode the drone will charge directly towards anything it recognises as a face.

In this mode, the video shows how the drone begins to ‘attack’ other people in the park, only stopping when Mr Wenus catches it.

Luis Wenus, an engineer and entrepreneur, showed how he converted a commercially available drone into an 'assassin drone' designed to hunt down targets in just a few hours

Luis Wenus, an engineer and entrepreneur, showed how he converted a commercially available drone into an 'assassin drone' designed to hunt down targets in just a few hours

Luis Wenus, an engineer and entrepreneur, showed how he converted a commercially available drone into an ‘assassin drone’ designed to hunt down targets in just a few hours

The drone also has a second setting which Mr Wenus describes as an ‘assassination drone’. 

Mr Wenus wrote: ‘I was also able to add face recognition to it, and only make it attack someone it knew who was, it could easily identify the person from 10 meters distance.’

The video shows how the drone selectively chooses to chase down its target, ignoring other people.

And, while this drone is not particularly dangerous, Mr Wenus warns that more deadly drones could pose a serious threat.

He wrote: ‘This literally took just a few hours to build, and made me realize how scary it is. You could easily strap a small amount of explosives on these and let 100’s of them fly around.’

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Wenus says that he wanted to develop the drone 'as a game' but quickly realised how dangerous this technology could be

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Wenus says that he wanted to develop the drone 'as a game' but quickly realised how dangerous this technology could be

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Wenus says that he wanted to develop the drone ‘as a game’ but quickly realised how dangerous this technology could be 

The video demonstrates how the drone is programmed to recognise faces and fly at full speed towards them

The video demonstrates how the drone is programmed to recognise faces and fly at full speed towards them

The video demonstrates how the drone is programmed to recognise faces and fly at full speed towards them 

On social media, some commenters expressed a mixture of admiration for the technology and fear for what it might be capable of

On social media, some commenters expressed a mixture of admiration for the technology and fear for what it might be capable of

On social media, some commenters expressed a mixture of admiration for the technology and fear for what it might be capable of

Other commenters were concerned that developing killer drones was now extremely easy with a little bit of technical knowledge

Other commenters were concerned that developing killer drones was now extremely easy with a little bit of technical knowledge

Other commenters were concerned that developing killer drones was now extremely easy with a little bit of technical knowledge 

Even Elon Musk, CEO of X, expressed his concern that it is 'alarmingly easy' to create autonomous killer drones

Even Elon Musk, CEO of X, expressed his concern that it is 'alarmingly easy' to create autonomous killer drones

Even Elon Musk, CEO of X, expressed his concern that it is ‘alarmingly easy’ to create autonomous killer drones 

On social media, commenters reacted with a mixture of fascination and horror to the invention. 

Responding to the post, one X user wrote: ‘Surface level, this is cool, but the potential to use this for evil is a bit scary!’

Another commenter added: ‘Yeah that shouldn’t be easy to build…’

Even Elon Musk, CEO of X, responded to the post by saying: ‘Yeah, it is alarmingly easy.’ 

Small explosive-carrying drones are already having a significant impact on the war in Ukraine. 

Ukrainian drone operators attach grenades, mortars, and other explosive devices to cheap commercially available drones to create deadly weapons.

These first-person drones have proven to be extremely effective at hunting down and destroying everything from individual troops to tanks and bunkers.

But, the crucial difference is that these drones are operated by an individual who is always in control of the process rather than an autonomous AI.

Ukrainian drone operators (pictured) have been using cheap commercial drones with explosive devices to hunt down Russian tanks and bunkers

Ukrainian drone operators (pictured) have been using cheap commercial drones with explosive devices to hunt down Russian tanks and bunkers

Ukrainian drone operators (pictured) have been using cheap commercial drones with explosive devices to hunt down Russian tanks and bunkers 

The drone used by Mr Wenus in this demonstration is extremely cheap and easy to obtain, as it is available on Amazon for only $115 (£89.99)

The drone used by Mr Wenus in this demonstration is extremely cheap and easy to obtain, as it is available on Amazon for only $115 (£89.99)

The drone used by Mr Wenus in this demonstration is extremely cheap and easy to obtain, as it is available on Amazon for only $115 (£89.99)

The real danger is that cheap, easy-to-produce swarms of autonomous drones could be released into battlefields or even public spaces.

Mr Wenus writes: ‘My bet is that we will see some sort of terror attack using this type of tech within the next few years. 

‘You still need some technical knowledge to build this now, but it becomes easier and easier.’

Autonomous drone swarms are yet to be deployed on the battlefield but DARPA is reportedly developing a drone swarm weapon of mass destruction dubbed AMASS (Autonomous Multi-Domain Adaptive Swarms-of-Swarms).

AMASS is still in the planning stages, but DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) has been collecting bids from suppliers for the $78 million contract.

Mr Wenus wrote: ‘We check for bombs and guns but THERE ARE NO ANTI-DRONE SYSTEMS FOR BIG EVENTS & PUBLIC SPACES YET. We need to build anti-drone systems for civilian spaces asap.’ 

Mr Wenus demonstrates the drone's 'assassination mode'. This image shows how the drone recognises his face and identifies him as a target with the instruction to 'ATTACK!!'

Mr Wenus demonstrates the drone's 'assassination mode'. This image shows how the drone recognises his face and identifies him as a target with the instruction to 'ATTACK!!'

Mr Wenus demonstrates the drone’s ‘assassination mode’. This image shows how the drone recognises his face and identifies him as a target with the instruction to ‘ATTACK!!’

Mr Wenus describes himself as an ‘open source absolutist’, meaning that he believes important developments in code, and AI in particular, should be open to the public.

And, in the responses to the post, a number of social media users asked Mr Wenus to release the code or share a full tutorial on how to produce an assassination drone. 

However, in this instance he says that he will refrain from posting the code due to the potential danger posed by autonomous drones.

‘I will not post for now, it’s honestly super easy to code but no point enabling,’ he added.

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk

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