Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Good point about what drones have conventionally meant. It’s kinda like what a “fighter plane “was in about 1945. Shortly thereafter it became “ fighter jet “. 

Replace drone with Robotic AI weapon.  

Drones are simply unmanned craft.  They can be in the air, water, or overland.  They can be fast or slow.

AI is useful for them in that (eventually) they can become completely autonomous, rather than requiring human control.  This would result in a massive increase in the numbers of, and capabilities of, drones in various forms of warfare.

Missiles and torpedoes have been "completely autonomous" for decades.  I prefer using more specific terms that clarify what is a modern drone as compared with say a Kitchen antiship missile or Mark 48 and even a MIRV.  Even bombs are autonomous and can have "collars" that guide them to a specific target.

A dumb bomb is autonomous in a sense governed by gravity and momentum etc.

To me, a modern "drone" is a flying vehicle guided by GPS or fiber optic or internal sensors at low altitude, though the term can be used more broadly.

It's pretty clear what people are talking about with their usage of the word "drone" in modern times.  If you want to be a pedant and argue about it, feel free.  The rest of us will simply continue to discuss them using the modern context.

I'm not sure if this is directed at me or Cincy.  

I'm not even sure how we got to this point in the discussion....I suppose when I suggested that aircraft carriers were obsolete. 

For what it's worth, I agree with this.  I think at some point in the relatively near future, a concentrated and overwhelming drone attack of many thousands of drones at a time, is precisely how carriers will be taken out.  Overwhelm the air defenses with so many targets that some will inevitably get through.

This is exactly how drone attacks have been successful against air defenses in the Russia/Ukraine war, and those are two countries that are dramatically underfunded compared to others in the world right now.

Edited to add: And that's not even counting the naval drones that are in use and being developed.  A combination of a huge number of air-based and water-based drones is likely to eventually overwhelm the defenses of a carrier or other ship.