It's interesting how public discourse has those blind spots, with people talking about autonomous machines killing people as if it's some danger looming on the horizon. They are already here and have been around for decades, we just call them mines (some of which attempt to filter out unintended targets), missiles (anti-ship missiles were collaboratively and selectively targeting ships since the 80s), and torpedoes. Anti-radiation loitering munitions are effectively autonomous killer drones, and Harpy first flew in 1989.

Wider recognition of the fact would do good to the quality of the discourse. What exactly are we scared of, considering that we had decades of experience with these systems? How much truth is there to those fears? How much of it is shallow media driven emotion vs genuine risk?