I think the problem with these sorts of people is that they are not actually that smart. Cognitively, as all-rounders, they lack crucial faculties of imagination, which not ironically are rooted in compassion, that lead to gross strategic errors.
Landmines and impact grenades tied to a balloon are also "autonomous weapons". They are indiscriminate. The former are persistent and the later are ephemeral. The former are also reusable. Within a weapons taxonomy the most dangerous (for yourself) to manufacture are persistent, autonomous and reusable. In other words, like a knife in a fight, there's a very good likelihood your opponent will take it off you and use it against you. Most IEDs used against British and US soldiers are made from UXO.
Weapons like drones are a gift to terrorists.
For everything you make, one must imagine it being used on a busy city shopping street where your own family are.
It's because the megalomaniacs are not actually that smart that they don't realise taking humans out of the loop is the same as relinquishing control, which is one step removed from handing control to the enemy.