Pentagon rolls out major reforms of R&D, AI
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth consolidates tech offices under Pentagon CTO Emil Michael, launches new AI initiatives from swarms to sims to GenAI, and breaks up the sprawling Advana database.
Startup Obviant wins $99M from DIU for AI acquisition data analytics
If Obviant’s prototype succeeds, the contract allows for expanding its use across the armed services and joint Combatant Commands — potentially complementing or competing with the Pentagon’s own Advana analytics.
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Data overload threatens decisionmakers as autonomy expands
Reducing cognitive overload on warfighters while improving “time to trust” for autonomous systems is a matter of design.
The questions that warfighters ask the most are now answered with data analytics
CDAO’s Advana data analytics platform is ingesting data from about 500 DoD business systems.
DoD R&E chief says Pentagon will trim ‘critical technology’ list
"The idea is to concentrate back to a number that we really believe is critical," Emil Michael said.
Pentagon moves AI office under R&D, raising fears it’s ‘demoting AI’
“When you pull an organization that was a direct report to the deputy secretary or secretary and move it somewhere else…the message to the force is loud and clear: This isn’t a priority,” said retired Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, who founded the predecessor to the current Chief Digital & AI Office (CDAO).
Anthropic, Google and xAI win $200M each from Pentagon AI chief for ‘agentic AI’
The three new contracts come on top of last month’s equal award to OpenAI, bringing the Chief Digital & AI Officer’s investment in cutting-edge commercial “frontier AI” to a total of $800 million.
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Turning R&D into reality to meet the challenges of the modern battlefield
Knowing when to build on commercial systems and when to develop something new can be the difference between parity and information dominance.
Pentagon AI office, Army award Ask Sage $10M for GenAI expansion
The contract expands the Army’s “Enterprise Large Language Model Workspace” — just introduced in May — to users at OSD, the Joint Staff, and combatant commands worldwide.
‘OpenAI For Government’ launches with $200M win from Pentagon CDAO
A new OpenAI initiative will also “consolidate” the company’s existing work with government clients like the Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA, Los Alamos and the Treasury Department.
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“Co-creation” boosts commercial technology for dual-use defense applications
Advana is an example – a mission-aligned data platform that integrates commercial innovation and defense-grade engineering.
Out of ‘prototype mode’: Officials aim to determine Advana’s next moves by mid-June
Having grown to 100,000 users worldwide, the Pentagon’s favorite big-data analytics system now needs the legal authorities and budgetary stability of a formal Program Of Record, officials told Breaking Defense in an exclusive interview.
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Meeting Zero Trust goals while maintaining information dominance
Balancing security and access to data are critical to providing users with trustworthy, reliable data for real-time decisions.
EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon memo lays out push for Advana to become formal program of record
The memo was signed on March 13 by Steven Morani, the acting assistant secretary of defense for sustainment.
How the Pentagon domesticated the chatbot: 2024 in review
This December, after 16 months of studies and experiments, the Department of Defense decided it had figured out enough guardrails for generative AI to start embracing the new technology wholesale.
Killer Apps: 5 stories highlight quiet progress on military AI and CJADC2
While combat has seen a drone revolution, the US has made subtle but real advances in applying AI to military planning, intelligence, and “all domain” command and control.
Decentralizing battle data: CDAO, Anduril open tactical ‘mesh’ to third-party developers
DoD’s Chief Digital & AI Office bought Anduril’s Lattice Mesh to let frontline units share data without having to relay it through a central HQ. Now CDAO and Anduril are letting third parties build apps to run on Lattice Mesh, without having to go through Anduril.