Tseng Initially Thought Defense Tech Was a 'Stupid Business'
Ryan Tseng · Drone Warfare: The New Rules of Combat Are Here · Apr 11, 2025 · at 2:20
Ryan Tseng is the co-founder and CEO of defense AI unicorn Shield AI. He is reflecting on his initial reaction when his brother, a former Navy SEAL, pitched him on starting the company.
0:00 / 0:15exact quote · 15.9s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“And, you know, I thought it was an extraordinary mission. I told you earlier, I thought it was a stupid business. And so I wished him luck and, you know, suggested that he come up with a better business to make mission impact.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Ryan Tseng
Tseng: US Cannot Close Drone Manufacturing Gap With China Within a Decade
“I think that the industrial capacity of China is Fearsome. And try as we might, I think that's gonna be a very difficult thing to close out in one year or even a decade, and, you know, I, I'm an optimist, and, you know, I like to, I'll always like to believe t…”
Tseng: Shield AI Updated Software in 24 Hours for HIMARS Strike
“In the span of 24 hours, the engineering team re-architected the stack to not use GPS at any point in the mission. We validated it at our Texas facilities, and then we pushed it forward, and 24 hours later the team took off and then conducted a demonstration t…”
Tseng: Human-Machine Teams Will Outperform Pure AI Systems for Several Years
“Maybe the good and true news right now is that I think human machine teams are far more effective than like machine only teams right now. And, you know, for the next, you know, several years, you know, I think that that'll continue to be true and maybe it's tr…”
Tseng: Physical Military Mass Alone Does Not Guarantee Effective Targeting
“There's a difference between mass and effect. And you know, simply like the world is big and targets are relatively small compared to the scale of the world. And it turns out that just throwing a bunch of mass down range, it can still be pretty hard to hit the…”
Tseng: Shield AI Will License AI Pilots to Defense Hardware Makers
“When we thought about the next 10 years, the question was, like, is the future really about Shield AI building the world's best AI pilot, or is it about making a contribution to the industrial base so that, you know, everybody that's building these systems You…”
Unprogrammed drone taught itself to exceed human-designed flight controllers
“And our chief science officer, Nate, took a quadrotor that doesn't know how to fly, that has the most advanced controllers designed by people ever. And in a period of a few days, the quadcopter, just through its own experiences, learned to reach Boundaries of …”