CEO of one of the biggest Silicon Valley companies on using AI in wars: If you're talking about killing people…

Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey has defended the controversial use of artificial intelligence to make life-or-death decisions in war. The co-founder of one of the biggest Silicon Valley defence technology companies explained the high stakes of warfare as a reason for AI use in combat. Anduril is among a growing number of defence tech startups developing autonomous AI weapons and tools for deployment in global conflicts. This rapid development has raised significant concerns among critics, who argue that the technology is too immature and untrustworthy for environments where human lives are at stake.

Luckey told Fox News Sunday: "When it comes to life and death decision-making, I think that it is too morally fraught an area, it is too critical of an area, to not apply the best technology available to you, regardless of what it is. Whether it's AI or quantum, or anything else. If you're talking about killing people, you need to minimise the amount of collateral damage. You need to be as certain as you can in anything that you do."


He added that it's crucial to be “as effective as possible.”

"So, to me, there's no moral high ground in using inferior technology, even if it allows you to say things like, 'We never let a robot decide who lives and who dies,'" Luckey added.

What Palmer Luckey said about starting Anduril

During his interview, Luckey explained why he started Anduril. He said that he wanted to "get people out of the tech industry, working on problems that I thought were not so important — advertising, social media, entertainment — and put them to work on defence problems, national security problems. Problems that really matter."

New technology is changing how the military operates, from office work to what soldiers can do in the field. Recently, drones have become increasingly important; they have enabled new defence companies to secure government funding and contracts. Under Donald Trump, who spends a lot on AI and shows interest in nuclear weapons testing, businesses involved in defence technology are doing just great.

Back in April, Luckey said "Pandora's box" had already been opened in the United States; therefore, we can't undo this use of AI in war.

"I'll get confronted by journalists who say, 'Oh, well, you know, we shouldn't open Pandora's box.’ And my point to them is that Pandora's box was opened a long time ago with anti-radiation missiles that seek out surface air missile launchers,” he noted.

Anduril Industries was founded in 2017. It is a technology defence company developing self-operating systems. The company aspires to upgrade the US military with advanced technologies in spy equipment, flying vehicles, and autonomous weapons. The company uses AI software called Lattice to power its technology.

Before Anduril, Luckey founded Oculus VR back in 2012. The company was sold to Facebook (now Meta) for $2 billion two years after its creation.

In February, it said it would take over a $22 billion deal between Microsoft and the Army. The Defence Department approved this partnership in April. Anduril now manages a program that creates specialised wearable devices using advanced virtual reality technology for soldiers.

The company introduced EagleEye in October, which it said "puts mission command and AI directly into the warfighter's helmet."