Quote of the day by Anduril founder Palmer Lucky: 'There's no moral high ground to making a land mine that can't tell the difference between a school bus full of children and Russian armor'

Date:
Wed, 05 Aug 2026 22:00:00 +0000

Description:
The era of 'dumb weapons' is coming to an end, with companies striving to infuse AI and other technologies into the tools of future warfare

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter The thought of infusing AI into weapons immediately evokes deep fears, not only based on the idea that autonomous weapons may make life-and-death decisions on our behalf, but also on the prospect of errors creeping in. But for Palmer Luckey, founder of Anduril Industries, there's no alternative but to add intelligence into the weapons systems of tomorrow. "It's a scary idea, but, I mean, that's the
world we live in. I'd say it's a lot scarier, for example, to imagine a weapons system that doesn't have any level of intelligence at all. There's no moral high ground to making a land mine that can't tell the difference
between a school bus full of children and Russian armor." Palmer Luckey, April 2025 Dumb vs smart weapons Luckey was speaking in a Q&A portion of a
TED talk when he made the comparison between the weapons of today and the AI-powered weapons of tomorrow. Quote of the day This article is part of TechRadar Pro's QOTD project to provide an insight into the minds of the brightest and most recognized figures in the technology industry today and in years gone by. Read the full series here . The talk was themed around his notion that adding intelligence to weapons systems could prevent future catastrophes, based on the notion of deterrence preventing different superpowers from waging war. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here:

On the subject of the ethics of incorporating AI into weapons, Luckey pointed out that 'dumb weapons' may indiscriminately kill without context or an understanding of a particular target.

He used a land mine as an example of a weapon that may kill innocents or combatants possibilities that wouldn't be considered ethically superior to his vision for smart weapons. You may like Quote of the day by Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey: 'There's no moral high ground in using inferior technology' challenging the dominant narrative over AI use in defense Quote of the day by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt: "A $5,000 drone can destroy a $5 million
tank" Quote of the day by Vladimir Putin on AI: "Whoever becomes the leader
in this sphere will become the ruler of the world" Intelligence-driven
warfare The rise of AI weapons has been quick but consequential, with new technologies being deployed on battlefields across the world. The war between Russia and Ukraine, in particular, has shown the potential for automated systems to dominate conflicts.

But the use of AI doesn't end at weaponry. It also involves the use of
machine learning, for example, to classify different moving elements from several sources of imagery. It's the holistic picture, Luckey argues, from which he draws his conclusions rather than isolated implementations. Are you
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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/quote-of-the-day-by-anduril-founder-palmer-lucky -theres-no-moral-high-ground-to-making-a-land-mine-that-cant-tell-the-differen ce-between-a-school-bus-full-of-children-and-russian-armor


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