Last March 2025, Skylark Labs, a U.S.-based artificial intelligence company, announced the formation of a distinguished Defense Advisory Board comprised of former military leaders and defense technology experts. According to the report, this board aims to bring together leaders with decades of leadership experience across military branches, intelligence operations, and defense technology deployment to provide Skylark Labs with more strategic insights in the national security space.
This announcement comes at a time when the military and defense agencies in the U.S. are integrating Skylark Labs’ clever “brain-inspired” AI systems into their security infrastructure, marking a significant shift away from traditional AI approaches.
Dr. Amarjot Singh, the Emerging Growth Leader at the 2025 Space and Defense Innovator of the Year Awards, founded Skylark Labs. The company develops adaptive AI that learns continuously and autonomously, mirroring the adaptability of the human brain. This technology has moved beyond being just a new product; it is now being practically implemented in military security operations.
From Academic Theory to Battlefield Reality
Dr. Singh’s journey from academic researcher to defense innovator began during his postdoctoral work at Stanford, where he participated in DARPA’s Lifelong Learning Machines program. His focus on the hippocampus led to breakthroughs in developing AI systems that could self-evolve without extensive training.
The company initially deployed the technology to rescue trafficked children in India, and has since expanded into critical defense applications. The company now works with defense organizations across multiple countries, developing systems that operate in environments where new threats constantly emerge.
The technology has also proven valuable for counter-drone operations, where new commercial and custom models appear regularly. Department of Defense stakeholders recently observed a demonstration of the ARIES (Aerial Reconnaissance & Elimination System) platform, which successfully identified unrecognized drone types at extended ranges and provided critical intelligence for rapid decision-making.
“ARIES is a unique system which can detect and track drones beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS), extending the range and effectiveness of its surveillance capabilities,” Col. (Ret.) Doug Drakeley, former director of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) for the U.S. Air Force Reserve Command, mentions. “We can immediately differentiate between friendly and hostile UASs by analyzing the trajectories of detected drones, providing crucial information for rapid decision-making in critical situations.”
Skylark Labs deployed the Scout MK II AI Tower along the U.S.-Mexico border, further highlighting this capability. Unlike conventional surveillance systems, which require manual updates to recognize new smuggling tactics, these towers observe unusual patterns, determine their significance, and incorporate this knowledge without human intervention.
“The Scout MK II AI Tower with Kepler’s adaptive technology is a revolutionary solution that dramatically improves border safety and situational awareness,” retired Border Patrol Agent in Charge Philip Calk stated. “As threats from cartels, drug trafficking, and human smuggling rapidly evolve, Skylark Labs’ real-time, self-learning AI provides immediate intelligence without software updates. Our border agents need this capability to counter these emerging challenges.”
Why the Industry Trusts Skylark Labs
Breaking the AI Dependency Cycle
For decades, military leaders have faced a frustrating reality: AI systems that grow obsolete against evolving threats, requiring constant updates and retraining cycles that can take weeks or months to implement.
Skylark Labs’ perspective fundamentally breaks this cycle. Its AI systems use a brain-inspired hybrid architecture that learns from single experiences, as humans do. This allows immediate adaptation to novel threats without waiting for software updates or cloud connectivity.
According to Dr. Singh, this capability proves particularly valuable for counter-drone operations, where new commercial and custom models appear regularly. This architecture enables AI systems to self-identify when they need to learn something new and adapt instantly without requiring extensive training cycles or large datasets.
The Edge Computing Advantage
Military planners identified complete on-device processing as another crucial benefit of Skylark Labs’ approach, since it eliminates reliance on vulnerable communications networks.
Skylark Labs’ flagship Kepler platform systems process data through dual pipelines. The “Knowledge Processing” pipeline handles familiar tasks efficiently on low-power devices. In contrast, the “Real-Time Learning” pipeline activates for new or unexpected signals, allowing the system to identify, learn, and adapt without external resources.
This architecture delivers 1,000 times greater efficiency in data processing, computational power, and energy usage than conventional AI systems. This efficiency enables deployment on resource-constrained edge devices operating in remote or infrastructure-limited settings.
Battle-Tested Validation
In an article on Mashable, Dr. Singh shares how Skylark Labs’ ARIES has already impacted the U.S. Department of Defense. This counter-unmanned aerial system (C-UAS) can detect and track drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), providing critical real-time intelligence for rapid decision-making.
During demonstrations in the defense sector, ARIES successfully identified rogue drones at long ranges, showcasing its potential to enhance airspace security against emerging threats. It can identify and track previously unseen drone configurations within seconds, a task that conventional methods would have required weeks of data collection and retraining to accomplish.
Security in all Areas
Skylark Labs delivers military-grade protection across land, air, and sea through a unified system architecture. Its technology adapts to multiple platforms, including border surveillance towers, counter-drone systems, autonomous vehicles, and tactical wearables. The technology uses advanced sensors, spatial mapping, and radar imaging to provide situational awareness at security checkpoints on land, in the air, and at sea.
The Scout MK II tower uses advanced visual and thermal imaging to detect terrestrial intrusions at U.S. border installations. At the same time, the ARIES platform simultaneously monitors airspace for unauthorized drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).
This cross-domain capability enables defense organizations to quickly use one adaptive AI system to share threat patterns across environments. As a result, the security network self-evolves to anticipate and neutralize new threats without human help.
Dr. Singh explains, “The shift from static systems to dynamic technologies that learn on the fly will define the next decade. Our vision is to lead this transformation by building embodied superintelligence capable of sensing, adapting, and acting in ever-changing environments.”
Collaborative Intelligence
Perhaps most revolutionary is Skylark Labs’ multi-agent outlook. Its systems share learned insights through a decentralized “supernetwork,” allowing collective adaptation to emerging threats. Dr. Singh explains that when one AI tower identifies a novel technique, all connected systems globally update their detection models within minutes, creating a constantly evolving defense network.
This collaborative technique can reduce false positives in joint military exercises compared to isolated AI deployments, addressing one of the most persistent challenges in automated threat detection.
What’s Next?
As geopolitical tensions rise and asymmetric threats proliferate, Skylark Labs’ technology is critical infrastructure for national security. Dr. Singh’s recent recognition as Emerging Growth Leader in the 2025 Space and Defense Innovator Awards shows that he has placed strategic importance on defense organizations.
While competitors race to develop similar capabilities, Skylark Labs maintains a significant lead through its unique hybrid architecture and deployment experience. For military leaders facing evolving threats in contested environments, the ability to deploy AI systems that continuously adapt without human intervention represents not just an incremental improvement. It is a fundamental shift in capabilities that could reshape the future of warfare.
Please visit Skylark Labs’ website for more information.
