The US Army will host the world's largest robot tank battle next year to test the use of AI in combat situations.
The simulated battle will see an entire company made up of hundreds of unmanned tanks fight each other in a simulated wargame.
As with other tests of armed AI vehicles, the American Army will see what performs best: manned tanks, unmanned robot tanks, or a combination of the two where a human operator is supported by AI.
If successful, it could see humans removed from the battlefield almost entirely and replaced with heavily armoured wheeled robots.
A previous test last year saw the Army turn a platoon of M113 mobile infantry carriers into robots.
General Ross Coffman, the director of the US Army's 'Next Generation Combat' team, said:
"You can imagine that if you can turn a 113, you can turn anything into a robot."
"We learned a ton. There were some clear winners in the technology base. There were some that weren't as great."
He added: "The lessons learned here, we can now then apply to a brigade and to a division and see how we want to fight with these things in the future."
"But I know of no country that has done above singular vehicle experiments."
The US military has sparked major safety and ethical fears over increased use of AI on the battlefield.
Last month, the secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall revealed that 'kill chain' AI is now being used to select targets for airstrikes.
Campaigners have been calling for the UN to ban unmanned autonomous weapons for some years.
In 2015, Elon Musk joined forces with the likes of Stephen Hawking to call for a worldwide ban on killer robots—to no effect.
