Sci-Fi Short Film “Slaughterbots” | DUST

DUST · 2.2M views · 2019-10-17 · 7:59

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Overview

Slaughterbots is a short sci-fi film in which swarms of cheap autonomous drones are programmed to kill targets by profile. It was made as arms-control advocacy against autonomous weapons.

On Hacker News

HN keeps citing it whenever drone swarms, autonomous weapons or AI warfare come up, as a believable depiction of where this leads.

Recommended by 5 HN people across 4 months · HN mentions 2021–2026

Topics

AI safety, AGI & impact Robotics Military history & warfare

What people said

zellyn · 2025-06 · Recommendation
Looks like most of the comments here are about the use as weapons and the possible dangers. I believe "Slaughterbots" is the canonical sci-fi video on the subject, and it appears to be aging pretty well. Unfortunately… [VIDEO]
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nothrabannosir · 2025-06 · Recommendation
Obligatory link to the short film (future documentary) “Slaughterbots” (2017), which depicts exactly this in harrowing detail: [VIDEO]
Read the original HN comment ↗

InvertedRhodium · 2023-12 · Recommendation
I really enjoy this video, which is set in a theoretical future where just what you describe eventuated: [VIDEO]
Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by DUST, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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