In my view the problem for either China or the US using nuclear is still mutually assured destruction - you fire a nuke, and we're going to launch all of ours.

In my view the problem for either China or the US using nuclear is still mutually assured destruction - you fire a nuke, and we're going to launch all of ours. If you start using nukes, you better take over the world, because if not, everyone's going to unite against you. Unless your plan is total world domination, using nukes is going to do more harm to a country than it will offer benefits. The same isn't true with autonomous killer robots, because you can use them in relative secrecy at a small scale. If you fire a nuke, you've immediately escalated to total war. If you take out a strategic target with an autonomous robot, you haven't really pushed the envelope of war that far beyond where it's already at, so I can't justifiably nuke you. I'd also say it's not just the ground we're talking about here - if we have autonomous killer dog robots, we're doing to have autonomous killer drones no question.