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A comment on Ask HN: Why is AI civil tech and not military first?.

Re:Ask HN: Why is AI civil tech and not military first? by PaulHoule on Thursday August 27, 2026 @11:00AM (#49466000)
Look at drones. Drones are a revolution in military affairs if there ever was one but they were not brought to you by military contractors like Boeing and Lockheed-Martin but instead developed as a consumer technology by the likes of DJI.

In some sense military technology is like an ant and consumer technology is like a 100 foot high giant robot. Military technology will produce innovation in wartime but in peacetime it is a backwater.

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Re:Ask HN: Why is AI civil tech and not military first? by yogiBear296148 on Thursday August 27, 2026 @02:58PM (#49469592)
Also drones are cheap. Military contractors would be competing against their own high cost products if they focused on drones.

Once mass starlink satellite AI robot warfare is the norm, the need for cheap cannon fodder equipment will be obvious. Whatever country can keep a steady flow of starlink satellites and bots flowing will dominate.

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Re:Ask HN: Why is AI civil tech and not military first? by badpun on Friday August 28, 2026 @08:47AM (#49477757)
> Military technology will produce innovation in wartime but in peacetime it is a backwater.

The Internet and GPS were directly invented as a military technology with civilian usage allowed only much later. Integrated circuits's invention and development was largely done on military's dime as well.

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