Generative AI Builds Autonomy for Defense
How Generative AI Will Enable Warfighters, Not Engineers, to Create Autonomy and Asset Mission Packages Imminently Scene Setter – Somewhere in the Pacific, circa 2028 The above scenario represents an achievable aimpoint for Shield AI that we have been working towards since the first papers on large language models were published. After reading those papers […]
AI Engineering and the Ethics of War
Jim Carlson is Shield AI’s General Counsel. Previously he was a software engineer, product manager, entrepreneur, and Marine Corps attack helicopter pilot having completed 100+ combat flights. He holds a JD, MBA, and BA from Stanford University. My eight-year-old daughter’s favorite movie is Top Gun 2: Maverick. I’m not sure if her love for the […]
It’s All Systems Go at Shield AI’s Texas Unified Facility
Historically speaking, the terms “aesthetic” and “production facility” are just about as asynchronous as you can get. Any mention of the manufacturing sector typically evokes gloomy images of billowing smog and the deafening roar of machinery — not exactly conducive to the type of collaborative initiatives necessitated by the evolving demands of the modern market. […]
A Quarter-Million Hours & Counting: Shield AI’s Seasoned Flight Operations Professionals
Shield AI aircraft operator Toby Stewart waits for a V-BAT to return to USS Arleigh Burke’s (DDG 51) flight deck while underway in the Irish Sea. From training, production flight testing, and demonstrations to deployed operations and engineering flight testing, Shield AI’s Flight Operations Team does it all. We recently sat down with three flight […]
V-BAT: A Gold Standard for Architectural Excellence
I came to appreciate engineering architecture as a newly minted electrical engineer working on wireless power. My first startup, WiPower, would go on to be acquired by Qualcomm. At Qualcomm I continued my work on wireless power, helping the technology become an industry standard now available in millions of devices. It was through this journey […]
Delivering Hivemind: A software ecosystem to enable autonomy on the edge
Alex Burtness is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and Johns Hopkins University, where he studied systems engineering and mechanical engineering, respectively. He served in the Navy as an Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) officer and worked at Brain Corp as a technical program manager before joining the Shield AI team in 2021. When people […]
2022 Letter from the CEO
Team, Security and stability have been the foundation of progress throughout history. In the eight decades following WWII, our families have enjoyed a period marked by relative peace and stability where peoples around the world competed and collaborated to create and trade goods, services, and ideas – to produce radical advancements in human achievement, human […]
Engineering Innovations with Lifesaving Implications
Jazz is an applied physicist and technical director at Shield AI. She led a V-BAT engineering team that successfully developed a belly bay payload capability and a custom cooling solution for Naval Advanced Medical Development’s (NAMD) & Defense Innovation Unit’s Just-In-Time Delivery Program. No one said integrating a highly capable expanded belly bay payload onto […]
Accelerating the Operational Deployment of the World’s Best AI Pilot to F-16, F-22, F-35 and Beyond
Craig “Bluto” Baker is a 30-year U.S. Air Force veteran, who recently retired as a Brigadier General. He is a command pilot with multiple combat tours and has directed operational updates, training, and requirements for F-35, F-22, and F-16 aircraft. In his role at Shield AI, Bluto will lead the company’s U.S. Air Force strategic […]
Hivemind for Operational, Read-and-React Swarming
As part of Shield AI’s work on an AFWERX Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) contract, we’ve integrated our autonomy and artificial intelligence stack, Hivemind, onto our vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned aircraft, V-BAT, in simulation. The goal of this project is to operationalize Hivemind for different hardware platforms to support Air Force Special Operations Command […]
