KIRA and Autonomous Weaponry
We were intending to create a world that acted as a “warning” to humanity through the medium of entertainment, but the real world has already beaten us to it.
While I don’t want to give a complete recap of everything happening in the world of AI, robotics, and autonomous weapons… things are moving fast. Exponentially, very fast. You could go to sleep one day, and wake up in a completely different world tomorrow. We should expect this level of change to only increase.
KIRA Universe was intending to keep things behind the scenes until we could actually produce our work, but because of the rapid pace of AI development, we see that the world is moving in a potentially dangerous direction. As a result, we have to pause, and write our warnings now.
The story of KIRA is all about autonomous weaponry. Humanity faces an impossible, apocalyptic scenario. A brilliant Japanese inventor, Hiroshi, creates a massive defensive construct, called KIRA: the Key Industrial Resource Administrator, to protect humanity from the evil Queen Sylphrena and her terrifying machines.
KIRA is a massive AI tower that breaches the clouds, towering over Neo Haven, one of the last capital cities of the planet. KIRA trains soldiers, produces weapons, molds the metal, builds the APCs, aircraft, bullets. Everything. A military industrial behemoth. Out of fear that the powerful KIRA AI could become misaligned with humanity, Hiroshi rigorously trains KIRA on free will, ethics, morality, natural law, the United States Constitution, and concepts of God.
Despite the impossible apocalyptic situation humanity faces against the evil Queen Sylphrena, the people of Neo Haven vote that KIRA must never act autonomously, or have the capacity to kill. All killing is a human endeavor, and that all of KIRA’s activities, MUST be a direct command from a military body. KIRA Command is formed. Men from around the world put their lives on the line, instead of relying on autonomous killing machines.
Humanity also votes YES on the Naomi Protocol: a Hail Mary act of desperation against Queen Sylphrena: A secret weapon, the Kinetic Interdimensional Robot Angel, becomes fully autonomous, is unleashed into the world, with the capacity to kill.
Out of fear of the potentially catastrophic protocol, amid the increasing desperation of the people, Hiroshi turns to Christian mythology and binds KIRA to 72 angels. What follows is staggering and incomprehensible.
It’s a story about humanity with no options left. What will they turn to? What will they do? What does that universe look like? It’s very dark, and it needs to be.
The Department of War
Recently in the news, for the first time in history, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated a U.S. company, Anthropic, a “Supply-Chain Risk to National Security.” A designation traditionally used against foreign adversaries. What did Anthropic do that upset the current Trump administration?
“Anthropic drew the Trump administration's ire by refusing to remove two specific ethical guardrails from its AI model, Claude — restrictions against being used for mass domestic surveillance of Americans and for fully autonomous weapons systems. The Pentagon demanded that Anthropic grant the military unrestricted access to Claude for "all lawful purposes," but Anthropic held firm, letting the government's deadline pass without conceding. Defense Secretary Hegseth declared the company's stance "fundamentally incompatible with American principles," while President Trump ordered every federal agency to immediately cease using Anthropic's technology. The irony wasn't lost on observers — even after the blacklisting, Claude was still reportedly being used to support active U.S. military operations in Iran, exposing the contradictions at the heart of an extraordinary public clash between a Silicon Valley AI company and the United States government.”
For the record, we fully support Anthropic in this endeavor, and here is why: Queen Sylphrena in our story, is a psychotic mess. She creates a colossal autonomous AI leviathan, trained to eat the world away and eradicate humanity. Our story shows what happens when certain people, perhaps somewhere on the dark triad, have control of AI. The Queen highlights the possibility that AI itself might not be the key thing to worry about, but the people who are utilizing it, to what ends, and for what goals.
We don’t have the answers to any of the key issues that we raise in the KIRA Universe. This project wants to, at least, start having the conversation. A conversation we find many are woefully unprepared to have because of how uncomfortable it is to have them. That is why we exist.
"Cyberpunk was a warning, not an aspiration."
— Mike Pondsmith