Robinson adds that augmented reality training will be critical to getting more autonomous systems into both training exercises and real-world deployments. “The future will be unmanned and manned working together. The real question is how to make manned and unmanned systems work together,” he says.
Luckey says artificial intelligence and autonomy are a big part of the future plan for Lattice. It envisions soldiers using the system to receive information from autonomous systems and use natural language to talk to them. “One of the things we do is develop models that are based on very classified information,” he says.
Augmented reality may be popular in military circles, but Microsoft’s IVAS headset was hardly an advertisement for the glitz of Silicon Valley. A US Army test report of the system, revealed in press releases in 2022, warned that early users felt nauseous and had headaches, even as the Army found the headsets improved mission effectiveness. After fixing the problems, however, Microsoft received a new contract to further develop the technology in 2023. In total, the U.S. military said it plans to spend $21.9 billion on the IVAS project.
Microsoft said that IVAS issues have improved significantly and that the platform will be further refined based on testing expected to take place in early 2025. Anduril did not disclose the terms of its deal with Microsoft.
“There’s a lot of interest in using augmented reality in a tactical context,” said Douglas Bowman, a professor at Virginia Tech who has developed virtual and augmented reality for the military. Bowman says the tradeoffs between wearables’ weight and power consumption and their utility remain unclear. He adds that the user experience needs to be refined to reduce distractions and ensure that important information comes to the surface. “It’s still early days and we’ll have to learn before these devices are ready for deployment.”
Cooperation between the tech industry and the US military also remains a hot potato among some Big Tech workers. Alphabet employees have repeatedly protested military contracts, with Google DeepMind employees recently signing an open letter calling on the company to divest itself of military ties.
However, Luckey remains an adamant and outspoken advocate of working with the Pentagon. He is also unusual among defense executives in posting anime-inspired promotional videos and musings on potentially deadly video game ideas, while also writing articles about the need for techies to embrace the military. Lucky is also an ardent supporter of Donald Trump, but he declined to discuss politics or the US presidential election in our interview.
Lucky is a living billionaire who sees little conflict. In fact, he says, his military dreams are quickly becoming a reality. “It’s already coming together exactly the way science fiction writers thought it would,” he says.
