The idea of AI’s interacting in a swarm or a pack is not a new one.  There have been researchers working with bug-type swarms in mini, evolutionary AI setups for decades.  In “The Extractionist” universe (near-future sci-fi I’m trying to place) this type of pack behavior governs many of the collective systems in the world, from the way cars interact on the highway to the way that the boxing ‘bots in warehouses gather customer orders for shipping.

It’s an answer to the classic Hollywood schtick where the hero has two self-guided missiles or drones or robots target each other, rather than the hero, thereby eliminating the threat and saving the day.  If you gather your AI’s together into a system, whereby they talk to each other and share data and location and speed, etc, they can work together towards a bigger goal (in DARPA’s case, a more accurate combat system) that can be used to build great things without the massive individual complexity required to have a “humanform” AI.