Deasy directed to establish Pentagon's Joint AI Center

By Justin Doubleday / July 2, 2018 at 2:13 PM

Defense Department Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy has been directed to establish a new Joint Artificial Intelligence Center to help coordinate the military's AI efforts.

Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan directed Deasy to establish the JAIC late last month, according to DOD spokesman Col. Rob Manning.

"The center will enable teams from across DOD to swiftly deliver new AI-enabled capabilities and effectively experiment with new operating concepts," Manning told reporters at the Pentagon today.

Michael Griffin, the under secretary of defense for research and engineering, previously said the JAIC would also include elements of the intelligence community.

"The jointness will include elements of the intelligence community as well," Griffin said during an April 13 event at the Hudson Institute in Washington. "It will be cross-cutting, across services and the intelligence community."

The Defense Innovation Board had recommended DOD set up an "AI center of excellence" as part of a slate of recommendations delivered to DOD leadership last year.

Meanwhile, lawmakers want to add money to DOD's AI pathfinder, Project Maven, as the Pentagon grapples with Google's decision to drop out of the program due to thousands of its engineers opposing work on military drone programs.

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