Will Pearce & Brad Palm (Dreadnode) // The Frontlines of Offensive AI Security

In today’s episode, Les sits down with Will Pearce and Brad Palm from Dreadnode, one of the nation’s most advanced offensive AI and cybersecurity companies. Based in the Rocky Mountain West, Dreadnode is redefining how we think about digital defense — by taking the offensive. Will and Brad share their experiences leading red teams at Microsoft, NVIDIA, and within the U.S. Marine Corps, and how those lessons now shape their mission to secure the future of artificial intelligence.

From battlefield drones and AI-enabled cyberattacks to the regulatory frameworks that will define the next era of warfare, this conversation explores what happens when AI becomes both a weapon and a shield.

Here’s a closer look at the episode:

From Red Teams to Founders

• Will Pearce, former leader of AI Red Teams at Microsoft and NVIDIA, discusses his journey from penetration testing and consulting to building Dreadnode.
• Describes how the offensive use of AI is a natural extension of red teaming — “offense leads defense.”

Brad Palm’s Path from the Battlefield

• Brad Palm, a Marine Corps veteran and former red team leader, shares how military principles of mobility, attack, and defense translate into cyber warfare.
• Offensive cyber as a transformational moment — comparing AI’s impact to the leap from muskets to machine guns.

The Rise of Offensive AI

• Will breaks down the offensive AI landscape, from code scanning and model manipulation to adversarial attacks on computer vision systems.
• How more “eyes,” even artificial ones, find more vulnerabilities — accelerating both innovation and exposure.

Building a Platform for Cyber ML Ops

• Dreadnode’s platform enables organizations to build, evaluate, and deploy AI models and agents with security in mind.
• Unlike “AI-in-a-box” startups, their approach mirrors ML Ops infrastructure — prioritizing transparency, testing, and adaptability.
• Their mission: help clients build their own capabilities, rather than just buy black-box solutions.

A Collaborative Cybersecurity Community

• Will and Brad note that in AI security, collaboration beats competition.
• “If you have confidence in your abilities, you don’t need to hide anything.”
• Despite growing investment and consolidation, the founders believe the industry is still expanding rapidly — with room for innovation and partnership.

Human + AI: The Future of the Battlefield

• Brad connects his defense background to current AI developments, pointing to autonomous drones in Ukraine as examples of real-time AI-driven warfare.
• Raises ethical and practical questions about “human-in-the-loop” systems and the urgency of explainable, auditable AI in combat environments.
• Will expands on how regulatory frameworks and rules of engagement must evolve to keep pace with privately developed AI systems.

Offensive AI Conference & What’s Next

• Hosting Offensive AI Con in San Diego — the first of its kind dedicated to offensive AI research and community building.
• The team continues to release state-of-the-art research drops, collaborating with cyber threat intel groups and enterprise partners.
• Above all, the founders share a deep appreciation for their team culture: detail-oriented, relentlessly curious, and dedicated to “winning every day.”

Resources:

Website: https://dreadnode.io/ 

Will Pearce - https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-pearce-a62331135/

Brad Palm - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradpalm/

Dreadnode LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dreadnode