KILLER robots are here, but not in the blockbuster sense; the discussion centres on a near‑term technological reality. According to Anthropic, Claude was used by the US Department of Defense and other national security agencies for mission‑critical applications such as intelligence analysis, modelling and simulation, operational planning, cyber operations, and more.
The government wrapped requests under a broad term “Any lawful use,” but Anthropic defined two off‑limits use‑cases: mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons. The company said frontier AI systems are simply not reliable enough to power fully autonomous weapons and offered to work directly with the Department of War on R&D, though this offer was not accepted.
The Lock and Code episode with Peter Asaro explores what a killer robot actually is and the implications of deploying rapid, AI‑driven decision‑making in warfare, where human judgment remains essential for deescalation. 5 April 2026.