Palmer Luckey

We need intelligent platforms that can operate in contested environments where human-piloted systems simply cannot.

We need weapons that can be produced at scale, deployed rapidly, and updated continuously.

Mass production matters.

In a conflict where our capacity is our greatest vulnerability, what we really need is a production model that mirrors the best of our commercial sector, fast, scalable and resilient.

We know how to win like this.

We rallied our industrial base during World War II to mass-produce weapons at an unprecedented scale.

That's how we won.

The Ford Motor Company, for example, produced one B-24 bomber every 63 minutes.

But to actually achieve the benefits of these mass-produced systems, we need them to be smarter.

This is where AI comes in.

AI is the only possible way we can keep up with China's numerical advantage.

We don't want to throw millions of people into the fight like they do.

We can't do it.

and we shouldn't do it.

AI software allows us to build a different kind of force, one that isn't limited by cost or complexity or population or manpower, but instead by adaptability, scale and speed of manufacturing.

Now, the ethical implications of AI in warfare are serious, but here's the truth.

If the United States doesn't lead in this space, authoritarian regimes will, and they won't be concerned with our ethical norms.

AI enhances decision-making, it increases precision, it reduces collateral damage,

hopefully can eliminate some conflicts altogether.

The good news is that the US and our allies have the technology, human capital and expertise to mass produce these new kinds of autonomous systems and launch a new golden age of defense production.