Musk and Hegseth promise to "make Star Trek" but miss demo lessons - Ars Technica

AI weapon systems can destroy their creators.

This week, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced their desire to "make Star Trek a reality" — while inadvertently reminding us of the utopian science fiction franchise.

Their event on Tuesday was the last of Hegsett's ongoing "Arsenal of Freedom" tour, which takes place at SpaceX's headquarters in Starbase, Texas.

Neither Musk nor Hegseth seem to remember that the phrase "Arsenal of Freedom"—at least in the context of Star Trek—is also the title of a 1988 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.This episode features an AI-powered weapons system and its automated vendors destroying an entire civilization and eventually threatening the crew of the USS Enterprise.(Some Trekkies have made the connection, though.)

In his opening remarks this week, Musk outlined his great vision for SpaceX, saying he wanted to "make Starfleet Academy a reality."

When Musk introduced Hegset, the two men shook hands.Hegseth then showed the crowd a Vulcan scream, and Musk repeated, "Star Trek is real!"

Hegseth discussed the importance of innovation and artificial intelligence for the US military.

"Pretty soon we'll have the world's leading AI models on every unclassified and classified network across our department. It's been a long time coming," Hegseth said.

"To that end, today, under my leadership, we launched an AI acceleration strategy that will extend our leadership in military AI established during President Trump's first term. This strategy will drive experimentation, remove bureaucratic obstacles, focus on investment and demonstrate the approach to implementation necessary to lead military AI and make it even more dominant in the future."