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In this episode, Nathan Labenz sits down with Hayk Martiros, VP of Autonomy at Skydio. Martiros leads the autonomy team, which holds the state of the art in complex autonomous flight. Skydio is the largest drone developer in the US, and recently raised $230M to expand its US manufacturing 10-fold, bringing its valuation to $2.2 billion. In this discussion, Hayk and Nathan discuss why Skydio will not weaponize its drones, Skydio\u2019s systems and AI approach, and the considerations of choosing an autonomous system over a human agent.\xa0\n\nWe're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's personal team on other projects he's incubating. He's hiring a Chief of Staff, EA, Head of Special Projects, Investment Associate, and more. For a list of JDs, check out: eriktorenberg.com.\n\nLINKS:\nSymForce: https://github.com/symforce-org/symforce\nEnd-to-End Learning of Geometry and Context for Deep Stereo Regression (Skydio\u2019s 2017 paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/1703.04309\n\nTIMESTAMPS:\n(00:00) Episode Preview\n(01:12) Nathan\u2019s episode intro\n(07:44) Hayk\u2019s story\n(11:21) What is Skydio?\n(14:59) Sponsor: Omneky\n(16:56) The core driver of Skydio\u2019s business\n(20:21) Skydio\u2019s AI approach\n(23:56) Updating the voltage 30,000 times per second\n(24:52) How is the Skydio system built?\n(34:07) The loops in the Skydio system\n(36:00) SymForce, Skydio\u2019s open source library and Hayk\u2019s creation\n(41:06) Writing symbolic expressions as a roboticist\xa0\n(42:14) Writing an expression for a toy race car\n(47:58) Skydio neural networks\n(51:29) Going from designed systems to end-to-end systems\n(58:17) How much does a Skydio drone and dock cost to install?\n(01:00:19) The cost savings of using a Skydio drone\n(01:02:59) Are $1 drone missions in the consumer\u2019s future?\n(01:06:22) Vertical integration vs platform\n(01:09:29) The advantages and disadvantages of drones\n(01:11:17) Running LLMs on a drone\n(01:14:36) Power consumption going to compute vs mechanics\n(01:18:26) Hayk\u2019s predictions for consumer autonomous systems\n(01:21:51) Standards for choosing autonomous systems over humans\n(01:25:23) Skydio\u2019s societal impact\n(01:28:34) Universal basic income\n(01:30:27) Skydio drone usage in defense\n(01:34:34) The Ukraine-Russia conflict\n(01:38:02) Hayk\u2019s experience with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict\n\nTWITTER:\n@SkydioHQ (Skydio)\n@CogRev_Podcast\n@labenz (Nathan)\n@eriktorenberg (Erik)\n\nSPONSORS:\nShopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. Shopify powers 10% of ALL eCommerce in the US. And Shopify's the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklinen, and 1,000,000s of other entrepreneurs across 175 countries.From their all-in-one e-commerce platform, to their in-person POS system \u2013 wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered. With free Shopify Magic, sell more with less effort by whipping up captivating content that converts \u2013 from blog posts to product descriptions using AI. Sign up for $1/month trial period: https://shopify.com/cognitive\n\nThank you Omneky for sponsoring The Cognitive Revolution. Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work, customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real-time advertising data. Mention "Cog Rev" for 10% off.\n\nThis show is produced by Turpentine: a network of podcasts, newsletters, and more, covering technology, business, and culture \u2014 all from the perspective of industry insiders and experts. We\u2019re launching new shows every week, and we\u2019re looking for industry-leading sponsors \u2014 if you think that might be you and your company, email us at erik@turpentine.co.\n\nMUSIC CREDIT:\nMusicLM