Elon Musk involved in a Pentagon project analyzing the future of warfare

Elon Musk and drone entrepreneur Palmer Luckey will play an important role in “Project Meridian,” a Pentagon initiative on the future of warfare, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday in a speech at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia.

The project is expected to present its findings within 120 days and aims to identify the technologies and capabilities needed to achieve military and technological superiority in the coming decades. Hegseth emphasized the importance of autonomous systems, robotics and artificial intelligence capable of operating or carrying out attacks with limited human intervention.

The U.S. secretary also announced the creation of an Autonomous Warfare Command, intended to expand the use of autonomous and robotic systems in the U.S. military. The initiative comes amid a dispute between the Pentagon and Anthropic, which has refused to allow its technology to be used for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.

Musk is involved in developing artificial intelligence and humanoid robots through his companies xAI and Tesla. In the same speech, Hegseth announced cuts to positions for generals and admirals, new military energy facilities and plans for a base that could accommodate up to 25,000 soldiers.