Talk:Mike LeBlanc

Edit request: expand career, military service, and views sections

I have a disclosed conflict of interest with this article's subject (per WP:COI / WP:PAID — disclosure on my user page). I'm requesting an uninvolved editor review and implement the following changes rather than editing the article directly.

Proposed version: User:Waves1234/sandbox

Summary of changes:

• Expands "Career" with sourced detail on Cobalt Robotics (funding, team size) and Foundation (Ukraine deployment, SBIR contract status, Eric Trump/Warren controversy)
• Adds a "Military service" section using an independent nonprofit source (Timothy T. Day Foundation fellowship page) for previously unsourced details: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, JSOTF-Arabian Peninsula, and the circumstances behind his two awarded medals
• Adds a new "Views on automated warfare" section covering his public advocacy for combat robots, sourced to Time, NBC Bay Area, CNBC, and the BBC — including a "Reception and criticism" subsection quoting Bonnie Docherty (Harvard), UN Secretary-General Guterres, and Nicole van Rooijen (Stop Killer Robots) for balance
• Adds a "Writing" section on his forthcoming book (Simon & Schuster, Nov. 2026)
• All new claims are cited to independent secondary sources (Time, CNBC, NBC, BBC, Business Insider, etc.); a couple of details are additionally supported by a podcast interview with the subject, used only for self-descriptive, non-contentious statements per WP:ABOUTSELF

An earlier attempt to add similar content was reverted on 28 July 2026 due to a formatting error (an unclosed HTML comment that broke the reference list) — that error has been fixed in the current sandbox draft.

Happy to answer any questions about sourcing or trim anything a reviewer flags as promotional. Thank you for your time. Waves1234 (talk) 22:16, 28 July 2026 (UTC)

looking, i think this is unlikely to get anywhere without you doing some extensive rewriting and reading up on wikipedia's style of writing. specifically, wp:lead, wp:summarystyle. it has Way too much detail, i dont need to know what schools he applied to or what curriculum they used- for example. the one thing i will do with this right now tho is go in and use it for sources on any unsourced statements in the current article.

edit- nevermind, this is a very well sourced article. Jackjd0 (talk) 03:05, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

hey, i saw that you went ahead with an overhaul, taking my response into consideration. i went ahead and removed the few promotional seeming bits i saw on a first read but in the future, please discuss any major edits on the talk page ahead of time Jackjd0 (talk) 06:46, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

COI tag (July 2026)

recent overhaul by declared paid coi editor. i removed a few bits i could find but if one or two other editors could take a peek at this and do things like verifying sources that would be great Jackjd0 (talk) 06:50, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

I'll look at it tonight @Jackjd0, @Waves1234  — MWFwiki (talk) 19:47, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

Thanks both — appreciate you taking a look, Jack, and thanks in advance MWFwiki. Understood on discussing major edits here first going forward; that's fair, and I'll do that from now on rather than editing directly.

Happy to answer any questions on sourcing while you're reviewing. Waves1234 (talk) 23:25, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

Taking a look at this right now, and if I can verify anything I'll go ahead and remove the COI tag. Chuck Marty (talk) 15:34, 31 July 2026 (UTC)

Seconded. I don't see any glaring issues, though I still have only glanced at everything. Courtesy-tagging @Waves1234  — MWFwiki (talk) 01:08, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

in thinking about this more, i think expanding the controversies/ criticisms might be good to make sure it remains balanced, ill try to get to that in the next day or two but it will require some research Jackjd0 (talk) 01:36, 1 August 2026 (UTC)