DOD taps Lyft’s Craig Martell to be CDAO

The Pentagon today announced it’s bringing on Craig Martell, formerly the head of machine learning for rideshare company Lyft, to serve as the new chief digital and artificial intelligence officer.

Martell is the first permanent CDAO since the post’s establishment in late 2021, taking the reins from John Sherman, the Defense Department's chief information officer, who had been filling the CDAO post temporarily.

Martell will report to the deputy defense secretary and command the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, the Defense Digital Service and DOD’s chief data officer in an attempt to bolster alignment across the department and spotlight the importance of the military’s data, analytics and AI efforts.

In a press release announcing the news today, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks touted Martell’s “cutting-edge industry experience” derived from Lyft and a previous role as the head of machine learning at Dropbox.

“Advances in AI and machine learning are critical to delivering the capabilities we need to address key challenges both today and into the future,” Hicks said. “With Craig’s appointment, we hope to see the department increase the speed at which we develop and field advances in AI, data analytics, and machine-learning technology.”

The CDAO reached initial operating capability earlier this year.