Inside Ukraine’s secretive tech world building the future of war
Serhii Kupriienko sits in an unadorned room in an unadorned house on a quiet residential street in Kyiv, sketching out for me what the future of war looks like. “I’m not very good at drawing,” he says, dragging a blue marker across the lid of his laptop (he assures me it washes off), creating a series of rough formations meant to represent groups of drones. The point of the art is to show how his…
Serhii Kupriienko, CEO and cofounder of Swarmer, an AI defense tech company in Kyiv, is sketching out a vision of the future of war in a simple room. He explains how his software can help unmanned systems like drones coordinate on the battlefield, reducing human involvement. Kupriienko, a former Amazon AI engineer, started the company after witnessing the effectiveness of Ukrainian drone warfare during Russia's 2022 invasion.
By 2025, drones were responsible for up to 80% of battlefield casualties. Swarmer's AI helps with tasks like route planning and task allocation, adapting to changing battlefield conditions. The company's growth tracks the conflict's evolution, with Ukraine manufacturing 1.5 million UAVs annually by late 2024. Russia responded by using electronic warfare to disrupt drone communications.
Meanwhile, U.S. investors like Eric Schmidt and Alex Karp are pouring money into Ukrainian defense tech, while Russia may have already developed fully autonomous strike drones. Ukraine's AI strategy is gaining international attention, as the country's rapid innovation race against a corporate giant raises ethical questions about the future of warfare.
Written by urgent.news from Fast Company's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
