Your idea of "artificial life" explains well why the world is headed in the wrong direction, and why we have such a deeply disturbing double standard when it comes to violence. I raised a similar question about this double standard in my story On Barbarity and Civilization:

"We are supposed to accept that human toll, because the pilot flew over a target and dropped a bomb from the sky — in a very civilized American-like “democratic” manner."

https://ramsey-hanhan.medium.com/on-barbarity-and-civilization-617d627a24ff