About | Trusted By Heroes

AI Referee & AI Governance Oversight

TrustedByHeroes provides AI Referee oversight — a human-centered approach to AI governance designed for organizations that want efficiency without surrendering accountability.

AI Referee focuses on three fundamentals:

Where AI is permitted to operate
When human review is mandatory
Who is accountable for the final outcome

This framework helps organizations demonstrate responsible AI use to regulators, insurers, employees, and customers as 2026 governance standards take effect.

Who am I?

Built on Service, Accountability, and Verifiable Standards.

My name is Bob McTaggart, and my career spans over 30 years of building companies where trust, clarity, and delivery matter.

I served in the military, and that experience taught me a critical lesson: Issuing an order isn't the same as executing it. In high-stakes environments, you don't just "hope" people understand the mission—you train them, you test them, and you verify their readiness.

I brought that same discipline to BaseState.

I've stood at the intersection where legislation moves at the speed of a pen stroke and physics moves at the speed of reality. During the Check 21 transition, I was a lead inventor at Arcis Digital Security, witnessing firsthand as the industry's "gold-standard" security features—specifically legacy void pantographs—became a form of Digital Hostility that sabotaged the very scanners they were meant to pass through. When a skeptical teammate told me I would "never get a patent" on a solution to this collision of eras, it acted as a red flag to a bull. I didn't just engineer the Digital Image Pantograph (DIP) to survive the brutal binarization of bank scanners; I architected a new standard of forensic integrity that proved the skeptics wrong and secured the digital rails of the U.S. financial system.

That experience taught me that in any digital metamorphosis, the physical artifact eventually becomes a ghost; the only lasting defense is a secure process and data-centric truth. By pioneering the "White Paper Factory" with Canon, I helped eliminate the liability of secure inventory, moving the industry toward dynamic, on-demand security applied at the moment of creation. Today, as we face the 2026 governance shifts in AI and real-time payments, I bring that same "been here before" perspective to the table. I know that the most dangerous risk isn't technical failure, but governance failure, and I apply those battle-tested principles of command accountability to ensure that modern automation remains a tool for human leadership rather than a source of systemic friction.

I am also a mental-health advocate for veterans and first responders through RedFridayTalks.help. I spend my life supporting the people who show up when it matters.

Service, accountability, and looking out for people aren't slogans to me—they are how I operate.

As part of our mission, veteran- and first-responder-owned small businesses listed in SupportOurHeroes.Directory receive advanced AI governance and oversight services at no cost.

AI should serve people — not replace judgment, leadership, or care.

Our Mission

Our mission is to ensure that AI strengthens human judgment instead of replacing it.

We provide AI Referee oversight—clear rules, human-in-the-loop accountability, and documented decision ownership—so organizations can use AI responsibly, transparently, and in alignment with emerging 2026 governance requirements.

As technology reshapes how businesses operate, Trusted By Heroes emphasizes responsible adoption — especially when tools like artificial intelligence can affect privacy, fairness, and trust. Our role is to ensure veteran and first responder entrepreneurs are not left exposed or unprepared as expectations change.

We believe accountability protects people.

By applying leadership discipline, psychological safety principles, and peer-support values rooted in service, we help organizations reduce risk, protect mental health, and maintain trust as automation accelerates.

We are committed to removing barriers for those who serve.
Veteran- and first-responder-owned small businesses receive advanced AI governance and oversight support at no cost through SupportOurHeroes.Directory.

AI should support people—never replace responsibility, leadership, or care.

Our Vision

We envision a future where AI is widely used but never unaccountable.

A future where organizations can innovate with confidence because every AI-assisted decision is guided by clear human authority, documented oversight, and respect for the people affected.

We believe the most trusted organizations will not be the most automated—but the most disciplined.
Those that prove leadership, transparency, and care in how technology is applied.

Our vision is to make AI Referee oversight a standard practice:
• Expected by regulators
• Understood by employees
• Trusted by customers
• Accessible to small businesses, not just enterprises

Revenue generated through Trusted By Heroes programs — including education, training, and governance initiatives — supports the ongoing sustainability of veteran- and first responder-focused platforms, outreach, and advocacy efforts.

We also envision a business environment where mental health, peer support, and service-driven leadership are recognized as operational strengths—not soft considerations—especially as automation increases cognitive load and moral risk.

By supporting veteran- and first-responder-owned businesses and the communities around them, we aim to build a culture where technology serves people, accountability protects trust, and progress never comes at the cost of human responsibility. ask for our help.