Technology can change war, and change quite quickly.

Eric Schmidt, founder of defence-technology startup Perennial Autonomy, speaking at the 2026 Milken Institute Global Conference.

I start — every day by believing that you actually have to fight for democracy. You have to actually fight for freedom. I wish that were not the answer, but I think there’s plenty of proof. And if we have to fight, I want America to win.

I personally believe…, we’re at a moment when all the technology assumptions shift. And the simplest way I can explain it to you all is — all those movies, all that great history, all the wonderful courageous things — we shouldn’t be doing any of that in the future. We should be sending robots instead.

So, we don’t need more ships. We need more drone ships. We don’t need more jet fighters, we need more non-human powered jet fighters and frankly missiles. We don’t need more tanks, we need more very powerful drones.

Now, I sit there and I go — how could that be possible? Well, remember that the tank is 100 years old. There was a time before tanks were invented, and it was of course a fantastic weapon in World War I. We all know the story of nuclear in World War II. Technology can change war, and change quite quickly.

So, the simple answer is that the future of war — which hopefully we will not be having — is powerful robotic solutions, call them drones, call them whatever you want, land, sea and air, that are controlled by powerful networks using artificial intelligence, that are highly precise.

I can give you plenty of facts to support my argument, but I’ll give you a simple one. There are essentially no woundings in the Ukrainian war. The weapons are so powerful, the drones are so accurate that you’re dead or alive. And I say that with sadness.