David Bray describes a career at the intersection of science, national security, and policy, starting with missile defense work as a teenager, early roles at Microsoft and Yahoo, and then deep involvement in U.S. biodefense and epidemic response around 9/11, anthrax, West Nile, and SARS. He later earned a PhD, served as a senior national intelligence executive reviewing IC R&D, helped stabilize cyber operations at the FCC after multiple APT compromises, worked with Vint Cerf on internet governance issues, and co-led bipartisan technology commissions whose recommendations on AI, cyber, bio, space, and supply chains have been widely implemented. Today he operates at the nexus of data, technology, and geopolitics, focused on how free societies can succeed over the next 10–20 years.​

The conversation then turns to the convergence of AI and biology, where David sees both major upside and misunderstood risks. He disputes popular claims that AI will “supercharge” novice bioterrorists, arguing that real-world biological threats still require hands-on expertise, even if AI can surface knowledge. Instead, he emphasizes using AI, sensing, and commercial space data to make the invisible visible—detecting emerging outbreaks through indicators like commodity prices and parking lot patterns, improving soil health and carbon sequestration with bacteria, and building layered models (molecular, cellular, organ, whole-body) to enable truly personalized, privacy-preserving medicine via techniques such as federated learning on devices as powerful as supercomputers.​

Finally, Bob and David explore AI-driven workforce disruption, wealth inequality, and the future of work in an era where generative and agentic AI amplify experienced workers but displace many others. David argues that people must think more like entrepreneurs, expect portfolio careers, and learn to critique and correct AI outputs, while societies experiment with new notions of work (including caregiving), shorter workweeks, and “boot camp”–style reskilling. He warns that blaming “AI” can obscure deeper governance and organizational design problems, and stresses that the design choices made by companies today will shape freedom, opportunity, and social stability at least as much as government policy in the decades ahead.

David is a highly sought after speaker and a prolific writer. For his OODALoop.com posts see: David Bray on OODALoop.com

We strongly recommend finding and following David Bray on LinkedIn, where he provides continued context on the impact of value centered leadership on society.