7 hours ago
Palmer Luckey is now the man leading a multi-billion-dollar company that is building autonomous weapons and AI tools for the military.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Palmer Luckey, the founder of defense company Anduril Industries, says one of his biggest concerns about the future of defense technology is the possibility of too much power falling into the hands of private companies.
“We can't live in a world where corporate executives have more practical power and control over U.S. foreign and military policy than the president of the United States or Congress,” Luckey said.
“There are people who I think would love to see that. I am not one of them.”
Luckey is, however, now the man leading a multi-billion-dollar company that is building autonomous weapons and AI tools for the military. He believes that new technology comes with a sense of responsibility for whoever chooses to deploy it, and those decisions must remain with elected officials who can ultimately be held accountable by voters.
“I think we do need to get comfortable with the idea that there will be certain systems that are making decisions of life and death,” Luckey said. “And we need to be very careful about how we deploy them and how we take responsibility for the actions of those systems.”
When it comes to selling Anduril’s military technology abroad, Luckey said that it’s also not something his company can do on its own. He says any sale to another country requires the cooperation and approval of the U.S. government.
But the rise of autonomous weapons raises a difficult ethical question: should artificial intelligence ever be allowed to make a lethal decision instead of a human pressing a button?
Luckey says reasonable people disagree, but he believes the answer is yes.
“Life-and-death decisions are too important not to apply the best possible technology to minimizing collateral damage,” he said.
Luckey argues that many existing weapons are far less precise than AI-guided systems. For example, he points to traditional anti-vehicle landmines that cannot distinguish between a military vehicle and civilians.
“I don't see the moral high ground in making a landmine that can't tell the difference between a Russian tank and a school bus full of kids,” he said.
In his view, the real debate isn’t between having weapons or not having them.
“The question isn’t no weapons or smart weapons,” he said. “It’s dumb weapons or smart weapons.”
Luckey says if technology can reduce the number of civilian deaths in war, it should be used — even if the idea of autonomous decision-making feels uncomfortable.
“If I can build weapons that reduce the number of civilian lives lost in war, I'm going to take that every single time,” he said.
Still, Luckey emphasizes that humans must always remain responsible for the outcomes of those systems.
“The responsibility must lie with humans,” he said. “People need to take responsibility for the use of those systems.”
Luckey also says autonomous defensive systems already exist today, including automated air defense systems that can react faster than humans when incoming threats are detected. If one of those systems were to mistakenly shoot down a civilian aircraft, Luckey says there would still be accountability.
“There would be an investigation,” he said. “Did you deploy it appropriately? Did you understand the risks?”
Luckey argues that removing automation entirely could create vulnerabilities on the battlefield.
“If you say you can never have an autonomous system, all someone has to do is break communications or knock out your command and control,” he said. “Then your enemy can pummel you without stopping.”
For Luckey, the challenge going forward is balancing powerful technology with responsible oversight.
“We need to get comfortable with the idea that certain systems will be making decisions of life and death,” he said. “But we also need to be very careful about how we deploy them and how we take responsibility for their actions.”
Luckey says Arsenal-1 is only the beginning, and the facility will continue bringing in new technologies he believes will perform better there than anywhere else.
