> Does AI really get you anything in that situation? Yes, it allows the actors to disassociate themselves with the act. Assuming you have drones with on-board

> Does AI really get you anything in that situation? Yes, it allows the actors to disassociate themselves with the act. Assuming you have drones with on-board image processing and autonomous loiter capability, you could place them hours, days, or even weeks in advance and have them configured to launch at a predetermined point in the future. FWIW, I wouldn't even call this sort of thing "AI" - it's already totally possible using mostly COTS ("Commercial, Off-The-Shelf") components and software. The only thing that would need to be custom is the image processing portion, and that's not really all that complex. The "follow me" functionality of most commercial photography-oriented quadcopters (e.g., DJI Mavic series, Autel Evo 2 series) already implements that sort of thing, just specific to identifying and tracking a person, vehicle, animal, etc.