Let’s start with this: defense, as an industry, doesn’t have to mean a focus on killing.
That’s even more true now, as engineers work on autonomous designs. They may, more and more, be classing solutions as “non-lethal,” as with more complexity comes more precision. We’re assuming that, in accordance with the Geneva convention, etc., that armies are not using the cutting-edge technologies on civilian populations.
I was sitting with Andrew Reiter recently at a TedX MIT event, interviewing him about his work in defense. This was one of the first things he said, in explaining how his company, Shield AI, worked on drones to replace front-line soldiers scouting hostile territory.
Keeping People Safe
“We started with a mission to protect service members and civilians,” he said. This is what you want to hear.
Reiter explained that military stakeholders were looking for an alternative to just sending soldiers knocking on doors in a foreign theatre. Reiter’s firm had this alternative, in the form of drones.
“My co-founder was a Navy SEAL, and he was coming out of his operations,” Reiter said. “He was a little tired of getting shot at. He started asking, ‘Why is the first thing we send through a door to clear a building a person? Why is a person opening a door when we don’t know if there’s going to be a loaded gun behind it, a terrorist, a hostage, or bombs ready to blow? Can’t we send in a robot?’”
And really, who wouldn’t be “tired of getting shot at?”
There was a certain serendipity, Reiter suggested, to the process of matching the drones with a clear use.
“I was developing fully autonomous quadrotors that could fly through a building and give you a complete 3D map,” he added, “but I couldn’t find a customer to buy them.”
Toward Energy
After going from designing drones to working on autonomous fighter jets, which he called “incredibly capable,” Reiter eventually wanted to go try something else, leaving Shield AI to work on decarbonization.
“It was another mission I was very excited about,” he said.
Initially, Reiter signed on to make software for a reactor company, but ended up doing regulatory stuff.
Then he pivoted again: to working on humanoid robotics.
“It was really interesting to see how robotics—from drones to humanoids—involves many of the same problems and, in some ways, many of the same solutions,” he said. “At the same time, it’s also a completely different setup and a different scenario. It was an interesting contrast.”
In those days, he explained, robotics was limited. Deploying a robot often still involved using a track-driven design that is heavy and awkward to transport, and obviously, less than agile.
“Since then, we’ve built bigger and bigger drones,” he said. “We’ve also deployed our autonomy software onto both our own platforms and those built by other companies.”
Big and Little Fliers
Reiter noted one of the abiding principles of the twenty-first century military being used from Ukraine to Iran to any other modern theatre.
“There’s a lot of value in having expendable assets,” he said. “Not just large, expensive warships, but also smaller systems that can get in, complete a mission, and get out. If one is shot down, it doesn’t cost billions of dollars to replace. One way to achieve that is by making these platforms smarter. By adding sensors, computing power, and advanced algorithms, you significantly increase their capabilities. While those components add cost and complexity, they enable smaller, less expensive platforms to perform many of the same missions as much larger and more costly systems.”
One of Reiter’s closing observations was that, in his view, nuclear power doesn’t belong on drones and airplanes.
“One of the largest concentrations of nuclear reactors (that the U.S. has) is in San Diego Harbor, where several naval vessels are based,” he said. “There are about seven nuclear reactors there, although not everyone realizes it. But I think we should keep nuclear reactors out of the skies.”
This was an inspiring talk. I think we need to redefine defense for the next century. It’s not what it used to be, what we see in grainy black and white video footage on the History channel. It’s born out of today’s reality, where hopefully, humanity can advance away from killing, toward more positive future outcomes. AI may help.
