Short bio
Chris Benson is a principal AI and autonomy research engineer on the Applied AI Mission Operations team at the Lockheed Martin AI Center. He is among the world's foremost experts in fully autonomous, agentic swarming of uncrewed systems (UxS) in every domain, and the author of The Art of Swarming. He cohosts the Practical AI podcast, one of the most popular and longest-running AI podcasts in the world. He was previously chief scientist for AI and machine learning at Honeywell SPS and a founding member of Accenture's first client-facing AI consulting team. He is a husband, father, pilot, educator, university advisor and licensed RVS wildlife rehabilitator.
Professional Profile
Chris Benson is currently a Principal AI & Autonomy Research Engineer on the Applied AI Mission Operations team at the Lockheed Martin AI Center, where he holds an active U.S. Department of Defense national security clearance at the Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) level.
He is among the world’s foremost experts in fully autonomous agentic UxS swarming with emergent unified embodied intelligence in all domains (robots & drones) and is the author of The Art of Swarming (currently querying publishers), written to be the seminal foundational book for the fledgling UxS swarming industry.
Concurrently, Chris cohosts the Practical AI podcast, which has a large global audience of AI practitioners, and is among the most popular and longest running AI podcasts in the world.
Previously, he was Chief Scientist for Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning at Honeywell SPS focused on AI-enabled robotics, and before that a founding member of Accenture’s first client-facing AI consulting team.
Chris spent 17 years prior to that in the digital and marketing technology industry doing simulation, virtual worlds, game development, software development, web & mobile development, deep brand creativity, customer experience (CX), commerce, and enterprise data technology platforms. He was also at AT&T for 3 years at the start of his career where he was a founding member of their very first Internet Services team.
Chris is an experienced keynote speaker known for his expertise, passion, energy, and clarity. He is a seasoned storyteller who delights in captivating his audiences with inspiring narratives and insightful analysis.
He is a husband, father, son, pilot, educator, university advisor, and licensed RVS wildlife rehabilitator.