The general public. If the people you're talking to are military or professionals, then fairly obviously they'll be setting up very precise language and expectations.
But every post vaguely about drones on HN has a whole bunch of people acting like a 1000 quadcopters will replace an F-35.
So I think we’re on the same page when it comes to the layperson’s ignorance on the subject, and I agree the term is mostly useless. I also agree that quadcopters aren’t the endgame of future warfare, although I’ve been entirely shocked at how effective they’ve been so far.
I don’t really put much stock in your average person’s take on warfare generally, so I’m not too bothered by the torrent of misunderstanding. You see the same thing with AI/AGI, and much of it is fueled by those garnering for clicks.
I will say I missed in my original response that the OP was taking exclusively about autonomous devices, and in that case I would agree with their take.