Palmer Luckey, founder of defense tech giant Anduril Industries, has issued a stark warning about artificial intelligence restrictions in military applications, arguing that Western nations are being manipulated into handicapping themselves while adversaries forge ahead with AI weapons development.
During a Tuesday talk at Pepperdine University, the 32-year-old entrepreneur—who previously founded Oculus VR and sold it to Meta for $2 billion—claimed that a “shadow campaign” is being waged at the United Nations by adversarial nations to convince Western countries to avoid using AI for weapons and defense. Luckey specifically called out Russia, China, and Iran as nations working to “cripple” Western military capabilities while simultaneously developing their own AI-powered weapons systems.
Anduril Industries, valued at $14 billion following an August Series F funding round, has emerged as one of Silicon Valley’s premier defense technology companies since its 2017 founding. The company’s product portfolio includes autonomous sentry towers deployed along the Mexican border and Altius-600M attack drones that have been supplied to Ukraine by the hundreds. All of Anduril’s technology operates autonomously on its proprietary AI platform called Lattice.
Luckey posed a provocative moral question during his speech: “What is the moral victory in being forced to use larger bombs with more collateral damage because we are not allowed to use systems that can penetrate past Russian or Chinese jamming systems and strike precisely?” He argued that AI-enabled precision weapons could actually reduce civilian casualties compared to conventional alternatives.
The defense tech founder particularly criticized European countries, suggesting they don’t understand how adversaries are using them as proxies to weaken Western military capabilities. “You need the good people to have AI. You don’t want the bad people to have AI but they are going to have it,” Luckey stated, emphasizing that Iran will have access to advanced AI in the future and China already possesses sophisticated AI capabilities.
Anduril has secured significant government contracts, including a nearly $1 billion deal with Special Operations Command in 2022 for counter-unmanned systems support. By 2019, the company had already established contracts with more than a dozen Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security agencies. Luckey has indicated that Anduril aims to go public soon.
Luckey joins other Silicon Valley leaders like Palantir CEO Alex Karp in advocating for technology’s role in military applications, often defending products their companies sell to defense and intelligence agencies.
Key Quotes
There is a shadow campaign being waged in the United Nations by many of our adversaries to trick Western countries that fancy themselves morally aligned into not applying AI for weapons or defense
Palmer Luckey made this claim during his Pepperdine University talk, suggesting that adversarial nations are deliberately attempting to manipulate Western countries into self-imposed AI restrictions while they develop their own military AI capabilities without constraint.
What is the moral victory in being forced to use larger bombs with more collateral damage because we are not allowed to use systems that can penetrate past Russian or Chinese jamming systems and strike precisely?
Luckey posed this rhetorical question to argue that AI-enabled precision weapons could actually be more ethical than conventional alternatives, reducing civilian casualties through improved targeting accuracy.
You need the good people to have AI. You don’t want the bad people to have AI but they are going to have it
The Anduril founder used this statement to emphasize the inevitability of adversarial nations developing military AI, arguing that Western restraint won’t prevent proliferation but will create strategic disadvantages.
We have a consistently pro-Western view that the West has a superior way of living and organizing itself, especially if we live up to our aspirations
Palantir CEO Alex Karp made this statement in a New York Times interview, demonstrating how Silicon Valley defense tech leaders are openly advocating for Western military superiority through technology, representing a cultural shift in the tech industry.
Our Take
Luckey’s comments reveal the emerging fault lines in AI governance that will define the next decade of technological competition. His framing of AI restrictions as a form of strategic manipulation is particularly noteworthy—it transforms the debate from ethics to geopolitics, suggesting that moral considerations are being weaponized against Western interests.
What’s striking is how defense tech founders are now openly advocating for their products in ways that would have been controversial in Silicon Valley just a decade ago. The involvement of prestigious venture capital firms like Founders Fund in $14 billion valuations for defense companies signals that this sector has achieved mainstream legitimacy in tech circles.
However, Luckey’s binary “good people vs. bad people” framing oversimplifies complex questions about autonomous weapons, accountability, and the risks of AI-powered military escalation. The real challenge isn’t whether to use AI in defense, but how to establish international norms that reduce catastrophic risks while maintaining security. As AI capabilities advance toward more autonomous decision-making in lethal contexts, these debates will only intensify.
Why This Matters
This story highlights a critical debate at the intersection of AI development, national security, and international ethics that will shape the future of warfare and global power dynamics. As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly sophisticated, the question of whether and how to deploy it in military applications represents one of the most consequential policy decisions facing Western democracies.
Luckey’s comments underscore growing tensions between AI safety advocates calling for restrictions and defense hawks arguing that unilateral restraint creates strategic vulnerabilities. With China investing heavily in military AI and Russia deploying autonomous systems in Ukraine, Western nations face a genuine dilemma: maintain ethical high ground through restrictions or compete in an AI arms race.
The involvement of major Silicon Valley figures and billion-dollar startups in defense technology also signals a significant shift in tech industry culture. Where previous generations of tech leaders often distanced themselves from military applications, today’s defense tech founders are actively promoting their products’ national security benefits. This trend has profound implications for AI development priorities, talent allocation, and the broader relationship between technology companies and government. The debate will intensify as AI capabilities advance, forcing policymakers to balance innovation, security, and ethical considerations in an increasingly multipolar world.
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