The distinction between a "thought experiment" and a "simulation" is fuzzy, and we can argue about how important the differences between the second and third versions of the story are.

But the first version of the story, where an actual drone supposedly turned around and deliberately killed a US warfighter, goes well beyond credulity. If something like that happened, it would be HUGE, with congressional-level investigations over many months, not something casually mentioned at some conference.

So I'm much more curious about how the original headline got published than I am about any simulated drone. This is not some small technical detail, this is the difference between a cute story and "holy shit".

If an editor/headline writer/content manager (or whatever they're called these days) sees a headline that says "Martians Attack New Jersey Town", maybe find out if you should add "... In Fictional Radio Program" before hitting "publish".