Department of Defense launches acritical intelligence tool development program

Artificial Intelligence is being harnessed to beef up U.S. defense systems. The Department of Defense is launching an AI program with $100 million for its first two fiscal years, building on findings from its recently concluded task force. Two divisions within the DOD, the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office and Defense Innovation Unit, recently unveiled a new AI Rapid Capabilities Cell (AI RCC) that will direct investments across multiple strategic technology projects.

The initiative, which spans fiscal years 2024 and 2025, comes as the DOD’s Task Force Lima concludes its assessment of how generative AI and large language models can be deployed across military operations. As artificial intelligence capabilities advance rapidly in the commercial sector, Task Force Lima found that while commercial AI tools are readily available, the military needs both technical talent to implement them and sufficient computational resources to operate at scale – areas where even the most advanced pilot programs have encountered limitations.

“The US commercial sector is at the cutting edge when it comes to artificial intelligence, and digital solutions,” said Chief Digital and AI Officer Dr. Radha Plumb. “We need an all-hands-on-deck approach to accelerate development and deployment of these tools for the Department of Defense to responsibly harness the tremendous promise of AI.”

The AI RCC will establish multiple controlled digital environments for testing and experimentation that DOD is calling “sandboxes,” with $20 million dedicated to cloud-based development. The first two sandboxes will launch in January 2025, followed by two more by summer. Another $35 million will fund frontier AI pilots focused on both warfighting and enterprise management of computer applications the DOD uses internally.

On the warfighting side, the initiative will target command and control systems, operational planning, logistics, weapons development and testing, uncrewed and autonomous systems, intelligence activities, information operations and cyber operations, according to a fact sheet released in December. These applications aim to enhance military decision-making and operational capabilities across multiple domains.

For enterprise management, the program will focus on modernizing core business functions including financial systems, human resources, logistics and supply chain, healthcare information management, legal analysis and compliance, procurement processes, software development and cybersecurity, according to the fact sheet. These improvements are designed to streamline administrative operations and increase organizational efficiency across the Department.

The largest portion of funding, $40 million, will support small business innovation research awards focused on developing GenAI applications for military missions. The initiative also includes $20 million for an enterprise-level partnership with Scale AI to produce AI-ready data and enable rapid development, plus $10 million for AI testing tools.

These investments are designed to create a resilient data infrastructure supporting advanced AI applications across military networks. To streamline adoption, CDAO is improving its internal processes to reduce onboarding times by 25% and improve approval success rates by 30%. The office has also launched a $5 million AI-enabled language translation capability through Lilt software to support military operations.

Image by Panumas Nikhomkhai from Pixabay