Ep. 78 - HavocAI

About Havoc AI Havoc AI is building the autonomy software stack that makes thousands of unmanned systems on the surface, in the air, and on the ground work together under the command of a single operator. Where others build the robot, Havoc writes the intelligence that makes fleets of robots fight as one. About Ben Chief Strategy Officer Ben Cipperley is an EOD-trained Navy veteran who spent 18 years defusing bombs from Japan to Afghanistan, then pivoted to writing America's 2022 National Defense Strategy, and is now architecting the autonomous fleet that could make $2.3B destroyers obsolete. Discussion Points The $2.3B Problem: When Ben asked a senior analyst whether the U.S. would use autonomous systems or guided missile destroyers to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, the answer was DDGs at $2.3 billion a copy and five years to build. One Operator, Thousands of Robots: Havoc's entire architecture is built around a single insight humans don't get cognitively smarter just because you give them a robot. The software has to collapse a fleet of multi-domain autonomous systems into a simple interface an operator can master in minutes, not months. Software in a Hardware Shell: The government is notoriously bad at buying software so Havoc wraps its autonomy stack inside hardware platforms. Eight maritime vessels, airborne drones via Mavrik and Teleo acquisitions, and ground vehicles all running the same autonomy layer. 150 Billion Data Points and Counting: Havoc puts real things on real water every day. Over 20,000 hours of live autonomous operations generated 150 billion data points the fuel powering their collision avoidance, target recognition, and computer vision algorithms. When NOT to Go to a Government Demo: If you can't define what success looks like before you show up, don't show up. One failed demo is a binary decision for an operator "that doesn't work" and your technology goes in a Conex box, never to be seen again. The LinkedIn "Open to Work" Banner Actually Worked: Twenty minutes after Ben flipped on his Open to Work status, Havoc CEO Paul Lewin called. Both Naval Academy grads who'd been circling each other since an investor conference where Ben (in full uniform, accidentally the most interesting person in the room) was introduced to the boats-at-an-aviation-summit team. The Last Mile Problem for Autonomous Logistics: You can autonomously sail a ship 1,000 miles but if you can't get supplies off the hull and onto the beach without a human crew, you've solved nothing. Multi-domain autonomy bridges that last 500 yards, seamlessly handing cargo from surface to air to ground without breaking the operational picture. Timestamps [01:55] From Bomb Disposal to the Pentagon [06:00] Writing America's 2022 National Defense Strategy [08:00] Building the Navy's First Force Design in 50 Years [11:25] Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Autonomous Alternative [16:02] How Havoc Works [19:47] How Havoc Got Started [25:40] Silent Swarm and the First Prototypes [32:36] When Should a Company NOT Go to a Government Demo? [39:14] The Mavrik and Teleo Acquisitions [43:00] The Last 500 Yards [46:42] The Next 12 Months Connect with Ben Cipperley & Havoc AI Website: havocai.com LinkedIn Ben Cipperley: linkedin.com/in/bencipperley/ Crossing the Valley: valleycrossers.com