U.S. Defense Department is preparing to shift away from research towards investments in autonomous killer robots.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is moving away from research and toward direct investment in autonomous weapons, signaling a shift in military priorities. A senior defense official, speaking anonymously to Defense One, revealed that the Pentagon is no longer focusing on general artificial intelligence research but instead prioritizing the development and deployment of autonomous killer robots.

"We're not going to be investing in 'artificial intelligence' because I don’t know what that means. We're going to invest in autonomous killer robots," the source stated, explaining that the Donald Trump administration’s focus is on practical weapon systems and business applications rather than broad technological advancements.

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A major shift in the funding model is also underway. Another anonymous official noted that instead of the government fully funding research and prototypes, the new approach pushes more costs onto the private sector.

"We’re trying to change the business model from 'the government pays $100 million for research and [the company] builds a prototype' to more of 'us paying a couple million dollars and industry pays $98 million and then they build a prototype'," a second Pentagon official said on condition of anonymity.

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This restructuring aims to speed up the development and deployment of lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs), which are referred to as “Terminators” in the Hollywood language.

While the Pentagon has previously funded research and limited testing, concerns over ethical implications and public backlash have slowed full-scale adoption. However, this shift suggests a more aggressive push toward integrating AI-driven weaponry into military operations, according to Defense One.

Oversight of this transition will reportedly fall to a new office described as the "commercial-engineering version" of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). This office will reallocate personnel from other research divisions to accelerate production.

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The groundwork for this shift was laid in 2023 when the Pentagon revised its policies on autonomous weapons. The update streamlined the approval process, requiring only signatures from senior officials to greenlight development and deployment. This move was made despite ongoing international efforts—led by the United Nations—to ban LAWs altogether.

The biggest reasoning for LAWs backing in the U.S. is that none of the largest military powers in the world has fully agreed to ban the research or production of autonomous killing machines. China – the rising AI and military foe of America – is believed to be developing such weapons for years.

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