Kriti Mehrotra
If there’s one thing absolutely nobody can deny, it’s that the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been all the rage in recent years, and even the world of military/war has not remained behind in it. After all, as elucidated by Brandon Tseng in Netflix’s ‘Unknown: Killer Robots,’ AI is changing the face of warfare by opening the gates to eliminate human decision-making altogether on the field. So now, if you simply wish to learn more about him — a Former Navy SEAL Official as well as the Co-Founder of a company enabling the same, Shield AI — we’ve got the primary details for you.
Who is Brandon Tseng?
As someone who seemingly always prioritized his nation and education above everything else, it’s honestly no surprise Brandon Tseng chose to step into such an industry immediately upon graduation. He actually enrolled at the United States Naval Academy to pursue a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering before jumping right into the action as an Assistant Chief Engineer or Auxiliaries Engineer. The truth is he only served here for a year and seven months prior to evolving into a full Naval SEAL Officer touring in the Eastern areas for a little over five years — he had four deployments.
“I spent seven years in the Navy… deployed twice to Afghanistan, once to the Pacific Theater, [and once to the Arabian Gulf],” Brandon elucidated in the original production, “… For the rest of my life, I’ll be thankful to my time in the Navy. There are a collection of memories and moments that, when I think about, I certainly get emotional. It is cliche, you know, that freedom isn’t free, but I 100% believe it. I’ve experienced it, and it takes a lot of sacrifice. When something bad happens to one of your teammates, whether they’re hurt or they’re killed, it’s just a really tragic thing.”
That’s why, the month following Brandon’s discharge in May 2015, he co-founded Shield AI alongside Andrew Reiter as well as Ryan Tseng in the hopes of developing a software to minimize such casualties. The idea was to have something that’ll not only equip soldiers with information but also take out any significant threats before it’s too late, especially as they have to clear as many as 150 compounds in a single day while in an active war zone, where there might be bombs or shooters at every step. Therefore, the company is a defense software firm working hard to allow drones and aircrafts to operate autonomously, hopefully with weapons in tow soon.
Brandon Tseng Prefers to Live a Low-Key Life
The truth is Brandon Tseng has almost always understood the potential positive impact of artificial intelligence on our lives, but he didn’t necessarily have the background to spread the word about the same. He hence enrolled at Harvard Business School to earn a Master’s in Business Administration, enabling him to now serve as Shield AI’s President, Co-Founder, as well as Chief Growth Officer. In other words, he’s the man responsible for its business development, corporate growth, strategy, marketing, and government relations to ultimately achieve its defense mission at a global scale.
We should also mention that ever since Shield AI first launched in June 2015, it has done 11 rounds to raise money to expand its operations, with the most recent one amounting to roughly $60 million. The company’s total valuation in itself is actually believed to be more than 2 or 3 billion dollars despite the fact it has received funding of a comparatively low $573 million (approximately) in aggregate.
As for Brandon’s personal standing; well, he prefers to keep his private life well away from the limelight these days, meaning we don’t know much regarding his family or relationships. All we know is that he’s an incredibly hard-working youngster who will admittedly be ruthless in his pursuit to bring AI to the forefront of the military.
