We're Living Through the Cyberpunk Era of War | Jim Rebesco, CEO, Striveworks

Directed energy weapons, autonomous drones, and combat AI agents are not just real. They are deployed.

Jim Rebesco, cofounder and CEO of Striveworks, breaks down what's driving this moment, and the second and third-order effects most people aren't tracking yet. AI can't be bolted onto legacy systems and expected to perform. 

It demands a blank sheet of paper. New design philosophy, new economics, new operational infrastructure. 

The old model of pitching a PowerPoint and billing for development is already crumbling. What replaces it is being built right now.

Agenda

• 0:00 We're already living in the cyberpunk era of war 
• 5:34 When do you trust an agent with your credit card 
• 14:04 The blank sheet of paper and the F-16 
• 19:34 From Wall Street algorithms to battlefield AI 
• 24:34 What Gen Alpha already takes for granted 
• 32:34 When science fiction becomes reality 
• 38:34 The $500 drone and the new economics of defense 
• 45:34 The trust stack and the agentic AI revolution 

Guest Links & Bio
Jim Rebesco: LinkedIn
Striveworks: Website
Striveworks Raises Growth Capital Led By Washington Harbour Partners

Dr. Jim Rebesco is CEO and a co-founder of Striveworks, an artificial intelligence company focused on the deployment of AI/ML models at scale. He is a board member for Sayari Labs, a leading financial intelligence company, and has served as a consulting member of the Army Science Board. 

Prior to founding Striveworks, Dr. Rebesco worked at Virtu Financial, a leading electronic market-making firm, where he led trading and data science teams as a partner in the firm. He was instrumental in building Virtu's capabilities from the beginning in data science and analytics and played a critical role in the firm's IPO in 2015. 

Dr. Rebesco has been engaged with the Federal Reserve Board, elements within the Department of Defense, the United States Military Academy, and others as a recognized subject matter expert in both Al and its applications to various industries, including finance and national defense. Dr. Rebesco earned his B.S. in Physics from the California Institute of Technology and his PhD in computational neuroscience from Northwestern University. 

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