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Shield AI’s founder on death, drones in Ukraine, and the AI weapon ‘no one wants’ | TechCrunch

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Brandon Tseng , a former Navy SEAL, founded Shield AI with a mission: “We built the world’s best AI pilot,” he said.

He and his brother have raised over $1 billion from investors like Riot Ventures and the U.S. Innovative Technology Fund .

Shield AI is part of a rare class of defense tech startups that has actually landed government contracts.

The potential value of AI -related federal contracts ballooned to $4.6 billion in 2023 from $335 million in 2022 , a report by the Brookings Institution says.

The biggest question of military AI use is not budget — it's ethics.

Founders and policymakers alike grapple with whether to allow completely autonomous weapons, meaning the AI itself decides when to kill.