The American intelligence apparatuses had been using this line of reasoning to legalize their illegal operations from the start: computers collecting data on citizens are not being ‘surveilled’. If a human needs to assess that data then they apply for a rubber stamp, but for the computer to collect and asses? There was never a need to seek authorization: it’s not surveillance. Computers collecting data and autonomously acting on that data–even to kill–can never be illegal. Welcome to the United State of Ammerikkka.

That’s to say: it never mattered. The verbal affluent to legitimize what they’re doing is just that.