UND gets Luckey with tech CEO visit
Anduril Industries Inc. founder Palmer Luckey talks defense, AI and education during stop at UND
Fresh off his visit to the 2024 UAS Summit & Expo as a special guest of Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Palmer Luckey visited UND on Oct. 9. While on campus, he spoke to students about his recent work in national security and the importance of technological innovation when it comes to national defense.
Luckey is the inventor of the virtual reality headset Oculus Rift, and founder of Anduril Industries Inc. — a defense technology company that brings the U.S. Department of Defense an ultra-modern approach to solving problems. He shared a stage in the Nistler College of Business & Public Administration’s Barry Auditorium with Cramer and UND President Andy Armacost, who moderated a discussion that gave students access to the billionaire CEO’s ideas on innovation in the business as well as defense spheres.
Playing a sort of matchmaker for innovators, Cramer said that after touring the Anduril facility, he immediately knew he wanted Luckey to learn more about the Grand Forks-based uncrewed aircraft systems ecosystem.
“Every time he showed me something new, I kept thinking, and I kept saying out loud, ‘You really have to come to Grand Forks.’ And I said that because the ecosystem here that UND is a big part of is something I wanted to expose him to, as well as expose you to him,” Cramer told Armacost on stage.
Wearing a Hawaiian shirt and sandals — his signature fashion items — Luckey gave the audience a quick rundown on his background, which included founding his VR company at 19, then selling it a few years later to Facebook for more than $2 billion. Prior to that, he worked with a U.S. Army research center on a program that used VR therapy to treat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.
After selling his Oculus business, Luckey founded his defense company, Anduril Industries. By the way, the company’s name is no accident:
“With Anduril, I felt like we were on the precipice of autonomy and artificial intelligence being something that was actually viable at scale for autonomous systems and relevant to the Department of Defense,” he said. So, “Anduril Industries; the acronym is ‘AI’ for a reason.”
The company is involved in several aspects of autonomy work including UAS and underwater vehicles, among others. Recently, the company announced it had secured a $250 million Pentagon contract to counter drone attacks against U.S. military forces using the company’s own uncrewed platform.
“This latest contract award highlights Anduril’s commitment to investing its own research and development to support defense innovation, providing rapid, scalable solutions to safeguard U.S. forces,” said the company in a statement acknowledging the award.
Armacost then opened the floor to questions from UND students. Below are some of those questions and responses.
Note: Due to the length of the questions and answers, UND Today has summarized the discussion.
When asked what the potential downsides of AI could be, and if, in fact, AI could be responsible for an apocalypse of the kind found in films such as “The Terminator,” Luckey said that was the “least likely scenario.”
“It’s actually pretty dumb AI in the hands of evil people and probably irrational people” that poses a larger threat, he said, noting that some AI programs can help people build devastating weapons with a low amount of effort.
On the topic of China, Palmer said that while running Oculus, he did business extensively there — but not without issues. For example, a person, whom he speculated may have worked for a government agency, broke into his hotel room and stole technology samples — an act he referred to as economic warfare.
But there are highly skilled people working in China, and Palmer, when asked, floated the idea of offering a “defector visa,” one that would allow talented foreign people to live and work in freedom in the U.S. This would be a win-win for the nation by both adding skilled workers and depriving an adversarial nation of talent.
“You win by winning, but you win even more when the other guy loses,” Luckey said.
Luckey also emphasized the need for the U.S. to re-engage with the defense industry to counteract China’s technological advancements. He highlighted the potential of AI and autonomous systems in defense as scalable technologies that can support a strong military to deter conflict and enhance diplomatic options.
Cramer agreed: “We have to ramp up really fast. We have to find innovators that aren’t stuck in the mud,” he said, adding that the U.S. needs to find a way to unleash its innovators to create technologies, and at costs the taxpayers are willing to pay.
Continuing with the Q&A, Luckey said he strongly favors using VR technology in military training, including combat simulation. Given that the U.S. is not involved in large-scale hostilities with another nation, many military deaths are training-related. VR technology could help prevent those deaths, he said.
Luckey said his company is working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to place Anduril-manufactured sensor towers at points along the southern U.S. border. The towers use Anduril’s AI technology to detect all people, vehicles or drones in an area, and then alert officers to their presence.
Securing the border, he added, is not a hopeless task.
“The technology absolutely exists to control the border and to know what is coming across in both directions,” he said.
After the event, Armacost made sure Luckey didn’t leave empty-handed. Sure, he got a bag of UND swag, but one item stuck out: a UND-themed Hawaiian shirt. One more for the closet of the tech billionaire who is looking for innovative ways to stay ahead of national adversaries, and who shared his ideas at the Nistler College of Business & Public Administration with University students.
Watch a short video about the Oct. 9 event.
>> Do you want to read more UND Today stories? Just hit the link or go to our home page to subscribe to our twice-weekly newsletter.
