In this conversation, Royce sits down with J.L. Hancock a Navy veteran, cryptologist, and author to explore how technology and artificial intelligence have reshaped military operations over the past two decades. Hancock, who completed more than a hundred combat missions and later led innovation efforts for the Navy’s special operations community, reflects on witnessing the rapid evolution of tech in warfare, from intelligence tools to unmanned systems. The discussion opens with Royce expressing his fascination with AI’s current momentum and curiosity about how such a massive institution adapts to constant technological change.

J.L. Hancock was born in Albuquerque, NM. He has worked as a martial arts instructor, lifeguard, foreign missionary, and river guide. In 2002, he enlisted in the Navy and spent twenty years as a cryptologist.

During his time in the military, Jim toiled away in the dark corners of the government intelligence communities, learned two Asian languages, and eventually conducted over one hundred combat operations with special operations forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Philippines. During the last six years of his career, he worked as the senior enlisted advisor over future concepts and innovation for the Navy special operations community where he became a well-known subject matter expert in unmanned systems, telecommunications, and artificial intelligence.

His Voodoo series of novels have won the Military Writer’s Society of America Gold Medal for Mystery/Crime/Thriller and the NYC Big Book Award for technothriller. He’s also been a finalist in the Clive Cussler Adventure Writing Competition.

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