General Dynamics Land Systems has signed a master teaming agreement with Primordial Labs to put natural language control into ground combat vehicles, so that crews can run on-board systems by stating what they want done.

Imagine if I pitched competitive rocket league players on an idea to give them an edge by developing voice activated control so they can say things like “air dribble” or “wavedash” and the AI will help control the rocket car for the players to offload some work… then imagine if instead of a silly video game we were talking about operating a ~70 ton cannon?

If you watch the way the crews of these vehicles operate, they don’t rely on the armor of the tank, they coordinate closely to move in and out of cover/defilade to apply forward force with minimal exposure to enemy return fire… so how does being able to give vague instructions to a vehicle help with that? This is all about precision and getting it right the first time… and sure you can say “well its onfly for the fiddly stuff like the sensors” but that doesn’t make the argument for it very convincing either… especially if you are scared for your life to some degree while operating it.

Now bring into context that the experience auditorily, mentally and physically of being hit by incoming fire whether it credibly can threaten penetration or not while inside an armored vehicle is not an experience you can describe…

This breaks my brain…

edit I think an automated retreat or evasive maneuvers kind of capability is absolutely worth integrating but voice control in an emergency feels like an insane idea to me. That is PRECISELY when I want a damn button.