CTOvision

CTOvision was a blog of technologist created by @bobgourley. After we formed @OODA we merged all efforts there. Please follow OODA for tech insights.

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

@MTSlive @eisokant @poolsideai https://t.co/2kCEdAP0il

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's workshop series on data and situational awareness for medical and public health preparedness and response has been announced.

The series runs three webinars this month, plus a capstone session in DC this September, and it's tackling a problem I've spent most of my career on: how you build real awareness of what's happening on the chaotic situations. I did that in a different domain, in operational intelligence situations. Things are different in crisis situations facing health care, public health, emergency management, but there are lessons that will carry well, especially when the situation is under stress and the data is noisy.

I'll be bringing an intelligence tradecraft lens to the discussion. Will talk Boyd, Klein, Heuer and how their many lessons aided me in dealing with chaos. Intuitive decision-making, confidence versus certainty, analysis of competing hypotheses, indications and warning: none of it was built for public health, but it maps onto this problem better than most people expect. Worth naming, too, where the analogy breaks down. Intelligence work deals with adversaries actively hiding things and seeking to deceive. Public health mostly deals with different types of chaos, natural noise and ambiguity. But the stakes are life and death and concern us all. Different problems, related toolkits.

If you work in health data, public health surveillance, emergency management, or critical infrastructure resilience, and you've got scar tissue from real incidents, the organizers want your voice in the room. Register and bring your questions and inputs.

Details and registration: https://t.co/AXzc38Dh9n

First web session 1 is July 16, 12 to 4pm ET. In person capstone session is 23 Sep.

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

Benchmark Scores Won't Tell You Who Is Winning the AI War. The real question is whether AI can get hard work done -- and the answer is complicated. For me, for now, it is a mashup of Claude, Claude Co-Work and OpenClaw.

But every user and enterprise is different. Bottom line is is go with the architecture that can help your enterprise get things done.

https://t.co/Ao6D3DnSwG

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

I hate the phrase "late-stage capitalism" because it implies the great uplifting of humanity from poverty is about to stop.

Evidence indicates to me this is just the beginning, we are still in a phase of "early-stage capitalism" that will expand human creativity.

Some evidence:

- AI is already delivering powerful capabilities, and AI investment is increasing, enabling productivity gains in every sector.

- Entrepreneurship and venture formation remains strong and AI is enabling more startups and more value creation.

- Capitalism is expanding into new domains including space.

- Communist China was able to stave off collapse (for a while) by allowing some capitalist value creation, but their Marxist leadership has proven that approach always fails.

So next time someone says "late-stage capitalism" to you feel free to push back.

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

Are you tired of just listening to others tell you what AI will bring us in the future? The loudest voices are the doomers, who seem to think our only choice is to all die sooner or, if we do things their way, maybe we can all die later. What if there were a way for you to run your own scenarios based on your own inputs? I built a dashboard that will let you do just that.

For me, every scenario I run says the future is going to be bright, but some choices make it brighter than others.

But try it yourself and form your own opinions.

https://t.co/fh9RBl4l84

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

I love @pmarca even more now. He is not just a great business leader and innovator but a great explainer. Really nailed his description of the @OODA Loop, as well as why John Boyd is perhaps the greatest military, business and political strategist that ever lived.

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

Anthropic’s report on their disruption of the first reported AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign proved once again that fiction is a great way to examine advanced espionage concepts, including how Agentic AI will impact espionage and cyberwar: https://t.co/o1SFFqwuqT

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

This video was created by accident. I was going to upload my book cover to @xai @grok Imagine and prompt it to produce some images. But hit the wrong button and mistakenly asked for a video, with no prompt. Result was unexpected and amazing.

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

Ken Huang and Chris Hughes have done is all a great service here by capturing the most comprehensive book on AI Agent security available today. Will help us all accelerate artificial intelligence into service for humanity.

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

Quick insights on OODAcon and how we will help add jet fuel to your OODA Loop, with @junaidislam. Bottom line: This is about ensuring you are ready to orient yourself to compete and win in the new AI enabled world.

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

I have just published a novel (Dragon Falls) designed for fans of military techno-thrillers and the espionage genre.

It is informed by my decades of experience in and around the intelligence community and in the cybersecurity and tech world.

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

Every year at OODAcon we gather hackers, thinkers, strategists, disrupters and creators with one foot in the future to see how we can all accelerate. Incredible agenda with fantastic attendees.

[CTOvision @ctovision]

The annual OODAcon brings together the hackers, thinkers, strategists, disruptors, leaders, technologists, and creators with one foot in the future to discuss the most pressing issues of the day and provide insight into the ways technology is evolving.
https://t.co/Kk8nUT7Fcx

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

We are setting ourselves up for the same issues we are having with Rare Earth Elements today by allowing the PRC to unethically steal from our AI companies and field capabilities like DeepSeek and Kimi2 in ways that undercut our companies. We are shooting ourselves in the foot.

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

OODAcon is diving deep into today's geopolitical and technological dynamics including sessions some of the nation's greatest experts in AI and Cyber.

We hand selected the right experts in PRC economic, military and industrial intentions.

Hear from the Special Assistant to the President and NSC Senior Director for Cyber.

Sessions with great American innovators who will help us all accelerate into a more resilient future. Join us 29 Oct in Reston.

https://t.co/A77VR8s7Gx

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

Join the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Cyber Alexei Bulazel and other leading creators of our future at OODAcon 29 Oct 2025:

https://t.co/zJnlJjGfBw

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

Repeat of an old poll, curious how your views may have changed. Of these three, which is the greatest threat to US National Security?

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

Dubai is perhaps the smartest, most future-focused city humanity has built.

It is brimming with seamless connectivity, smart tech infrastructure, and people-centered technologies.

I have spoken to so many pioneers here, including people building solutions in transportation, digital currency, Agentic AI, hospitality and Cybersecurity.

Wish I had time to learn more on this trip, I know there are lessons for virtually every domain required to operate a modern state.

A crucial takeaway from my brief time here: Complex interconnected systems require well thought out solutions to minimize systemic risks. Applying the right lessons from the cybersecurity community is critical.

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

The AI war is not over. But at this point in time, PRC related entities seem to be pulling ahead. U.S. based companies may lead in cutting-edge closed models like Gemini, Grok, ChatGPT. But Chinese firms are dominating in open source and in applied AI diffusion (for example, into robots in factories, healthcare, business, military, transportation, agriculture).

An interesting metric is number of parameters used to train a model. See the list below. Chinese firms dominate the list for the most massive.

Their push for open source is a master move that accelerates diffusion into real world applications.

There has been a flurry of activity in the U.S. aimed to help us accelerate. Regulations are being slashed and streamlined, the e/acc movement is helping push back on the doomers that want us to slow down, and investments are being made in massive data centers.

But we have a whole lot more work to do.

[Bob Gourley - e/acc @bobgourley]

Who has more insight into your computer network: your IT team or Xi Jinping? Consider that hypothetical as you contemplate CISA's latest Emergency Directive.