973 - Building The Camera The Captures Verifiably Real Photos w/ Kosuke July Hata (Roc Camera)

In this episode of Forward Thinking Founders, Mat chats with Kosuke July Hata, the founder behind the ROC Camera — a groundbreaking device built to take verifiably real photos in the age of AI.

He shares how his background in robotics, autonomous vehicles, and flying cars at Kitty Hawk shaped his belief that “impossible things are buildable with enough time,” and how that mindset led him to create a camera that can cryptographically prove an image was captured by a real sensor, in a real moment, by a real human.

We dive into:

• Why AI-generated “image slop” is eroding trust online
• How ROC uses sensor attestation + zero-knowledge proofs to verify authenticity
• Use cases from journalism to robotics to combating “this is AI” accusations
• What it takes to build hardware in a world dominated by software
• Why early adopters include cryptography engineers and AI-conscious creators
• July’s thoughts on SF, outrageous ideas, and building hard tech today

If you care about the future of photography, data provenance, or restoring trust to the internet, this is a must-listen conversation.

Learn more at roc.camera and follow July at @0xjuly.