UK launches SKYNET

[upnorth]

Content source

https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/05/mod_skynet_procurement/

After a week when the media sphere has been alive with the wildest claims about AI and its supposed power to wipe out humanity, it may not have been the best time for the UK's Ministry of Defence to launch a £1.5 billion procurement for SKYNET. Still, maybe they didn't get the memo.

Closer examination reveals that the Whitehall department is not about to set us on a path to our doom at the hands of nefarious robots, but is instead looking to buy a new satellite communications network. According to an official notice published recently, the MoD has kicked off the competition for suppliers to provide "the next era of satellite communications to the MoD using new space assets."

The SKYNET Programme already exists. In 2020, the UK government said it is "a family of military communications satellites, currently operated for the MoD, that provides strategic communication services to the UK Armed Forces and allies." SKYNET 5 is the most recent generation of this family, it said. Under the SKYNET Enduring Capability (SKEC) programme, the MoD was looking to deliver satellite communications using new "space assets and a way to monitor and control them."

MoD starts £1.5B hunt for SKYNET satellite replacement

They really need to start branding these things better

www.theregister.com