Pentagon asks for $54bn in pivot towards AI-powered war

Budget outlines funding for autonomous drone warfare program as experts say military unprepared for risks The Pentagon is aiming to increase funding more than a hundredfold for an autonomous drone warfare program, according to budget documents released this week, signalling a major pivot towards AI-powered war. In its 2027 budget, the Pentagon has asked for over $54bn to fund the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group, a 24,000% increase on last year. An overview of the budget describes this money as going towards “autonomous and remotely operated systems across air, land, and above and below the sea,” including the “Drone Dominance” program. The amount is over half the entire defence budget of the UK. In an opinion piece published yesterday, former CIA director David Petraeus said it was “the largest single commitment to autonomous warfare in history”. However, Petraeus and others warned that the US military, and AI companies, are largely unprepared for the risks and responsibilities of autonomous war. “I think every AI company should be pretty worried about the future of AI weapons,” said Jeffrey Ladish, director of Palisade Research and a former security researcher at Anthropic. Ladis