Human

Related but an aside - Lately I've really been wondering if Skynet actually is the next evolution.

That humans, like all animals before us, are a stepping stone and there is actually no avoiding machine overlords. It happens to literally every existence of life across the universe because the final emergent property of energy gradients 100% leads to pure logic machines.

At least Fermi's paradox helps me sleep better at night.

Terminator reminds the DOD that they would never make this

but what about China,Russia,Iran etc??? if integrating "Skynet" can improve their military capabilities then they would do it