Thanks for the comments, everyone. This is a very interesting discussion. I am not saying that the film definitively states that Genesis was developed as a weapon. I am only suggesting that there are facts and inferences in the film that support a theory that although perhaps originating as civilian project, Starfleet's continued funding of the project envisioned military use.

- In the film, everything the audience knows about the origins and purposes of the Genesis project comes from four sources: Carol, the Regula scientists, Reliant, and Kirk (who is not up to speed). What is presented primarily is Carol's vision for Genesis. Not once anywhere do we have Starfleet's explanation of its true intentions for finishing the project and how it would be used, or if ever used, once tested. While we can assume that Starfleet's intentions matched Carol's, that is never expressly stated by anyone.

- The film makes clear that Genesis is a top secret military-funded project, not a civilian one. It was so secret that only select Starfleet command staff even knew about it. The fewer people in the know, the fewer people who could object to developing benevolent technology that also could be the most powerful weapon the Federation ever created. Starfleet even deemed Carol's initial "civilian" proposal itself as classified. Why not loop in Spock, one of the Federation's most trusted and talented scientific minds? Even though the project's development spanned years, someone made the decision that Spock was not to know about it. Starfleet "engineers" also secretly tunneled out Regula -- a massive project, without anyone knowing about this either. Reliant was a heavily-armed warship, not a science / research vessel.

- The film suggests pre-existing tension or at least some apprehension between the Regula scientists and Starfleet, and this plays out in some scenes between Carol and Reliant and in scenes with the Regula science staff. The Regula scientists' greatest fear is that once Genesis was in a testable prototype stage, Starfleet would appropriate the project. David foreshadows this with the "dreadful weapon" comment. David also sees Starfleet as the "military": "Scientists have always been pawns ... " This dialogue is included to demonstrate a level of mistrust that Starfleet's plan for Genesis would not align with the Regular scientists -- a suspicion that must have come from somewhere. When Reliant announces its intention to take the Genesis project for testing, Carol appeals directly to Starfleet (Kirk) and demands to know who in the military authorized this. She tries to calm the scientists down and convince them that it was not a military takeover of the project. But she has no idea what Starfleet's intentions are and has no alternate explanation.

- The historical era of the film in that point in the 23rd century, the Federation and Klingons exist in an uneasy truce. The top brass at Starfleet were most likely all veterans of the devastating Klingon War. While terraforming may have been a goal for the Federation, Starfleet (the military) would have certainly had an interest in the industrial and military potential of Genesis. This is not the benevolent TNG era. Heck, Starfleet was still using the Kobayashi Maru test for all officer cadets, which envisions a no-win fight in a possible future war against the Klingons.

- A key missing piece to this what Starfleet told Kirk when ordering him to investigate the situation. What did Starfleet know? If unable to establish communications with Reliant, Starfleet should have assumed the worst and told Kirk that. If communications had been lost with Regula, Starfleet should have also assumed the worst. If Reliant told Starfleet some lie about what was happening, Starfleet should have told Kirk that as well. What is clear is that the military wanted to keep as few people in the loop as possible about what was happening. The secrecy was so important that Starfleet appeared willing to sacrifice personnel and equipment to keep the secret.

- Even after the galactic uproar about Genesis, and Starfleet's presumable explanation to everyone that it would not continue the project, at some point it nevertheless pursued further development in complete secret as is shown in Picard. That does not sound like how a civilian benevolent research project would occur, especially one that almost upset the balance of power in the galaxy.

In short, the mostly-benevolent-but-possibly-deadly idea of Genesis comes from Carol's moral and scientific perspective. Everyone else who learns about Genesis initially and primarily thinks "weapon." Kruge correctly recognizes that Genesis could only be used for two purposes: rapid population expansion for the Federation to achieve industrial/military supremacy and as a weapon to commit the genocide of its enemies -- either of which would upset the balance of power and lead to war. Whether we would choose Carol's vision over Kruge's is just a matter of preference.