Istari invites the US defence industry to enter The Matrix

Technology startup Istari – backed by former Google chief executive officer Eric Schmidt and founded by former US Air Force assistant secretary Will Roper – emerged from stealth mode last month, announcing plans to create a Matrix-inspired world where technology is created, tested, and even certified through modelling and simulation.

“Software ate the world, but hardware didn't,” says Roper, who launched Istari in May 2022, quickly raising a US$13mn seed round from Schmidt and other venture investors. “Models and simulations that turn the physical into software remain mostly isolated, not digitally threaded with reality. Istari technology is changing that, expanding the internet into a future engineering metaverse.”

Former Google CEO Schmidt says: "Will and the Istari team are bringing internet- type usability to models and simulations. This unlocks the possibility of software-like agility for future physical systems. It's very exciting."

In October 2020, Roper released a guide inspired by The Matrix called There is No Spoon: The New Digital Acquisition Reality. He followed this with a second guide, Bending the Spoon, released in 2021. “This is what defence acquisition has been waiting for –a new paradigm, a digital one, that can wake up to a new reality for both taxpayers and warfighters,” says Roper. “Its spoon-bending possibilities await us. It’s time to wake up!” intelligence techniques with new uncrewed vehicle designs," says Dr M. Christopher Cotting, US Air Force Test Pilot School director of research. "This approach, combined with focused testing on new vehicle systems as they are produced, will rapidly mature autonomy for uncrewed platforms and allow us to deliver tactically relevant capability to our warfighter."

Istari's product platform offers simple and secure digital engineering collaboration, accelerating user decisions across distributed teams. "We can design things, test things – in general, learn things – faster, cheaper, and greener than the physical universe allows," says Roper.

Lockheed Martin is also developing live AI technologies in its Aegis Combat System, designed to deliver a superior solution and tactical advantage to the US Navy.

“The Aegis Combat System combines over 50 years of continuous evolution to provide rapid, modern updates to

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the warfighters,” says Joe DePietro, vice president and general manager of Naval Combat and Missile Defense Systems at Lockheed Martin. “Today, we are exploring how AI can provide faster system reaction time and decision support for operators and commanders.”