William Shankle

William Shankle serves as an AI-focused program manager within DARPA, simultaneously advancing research on Anima while spearheading the development of unmanned combat drones to counter the threat known as Zai. Heavyset and perpetually unkempt, he is notorious for lighting up cigarettes wherever he pleases, no-smoking signs be damned. Yet beneath his disheveled, carefree exterior lies a razor-sharp mind capable of assessing volatile situations with clinical precision—a man who prizes tangible outcomes above all else.