<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/drones-military-technology-trump-23293...> The new president will have to decide how aggressively the U.S. pursues military technology that could let machines make life-or-death decisions. [] One Trump transition team member says the U.S. should not only oppose bans on the weapons but should lead the way in developing them. “The U.S. is not going to be amenable to any protocol in Geneva that bans the weapons they are developing," said Steven Groves, a Heritage Foundation fellow assigned to the transition’s State Department landing team. “Why would they do it when their peer competitors are developing the same kind of weapons?” He stressed that he does not speak on behalf of the transition team. The team did not respond to requests for comment. Groves, who has written frequently about the issue, has previously warned that attempts to ban autonomous weapons or "regulate [them] out of existence" were unlikely to succeed — although he expressed worries last year that the Obama administration might “cave” to the human rights groups, as it previously had on land mines. A Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System (MARS) armed robot is seen as the Defense Department on May 14, 2015 at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Developing autonomous weapons is “the only way U.S. armed forces can retain a tactical and strategic advantage over its enemies in future conflicts,” Groves wrote for Heritage last year. []