DoD Officially Establishes Joint Artificial Intelligence Center – MeriTalk

Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan last Wednesday issued a memorandum that officially establishes the Defense Department's (DoD) new Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), confirming statements made by Secretary James Mattis and other DoD officials in April that a center to house DoD's roughly 600 AI projects was forthcoming. The JAIC will be established and guided by DoD CIO Dana Deasy "with the overarching goal of accelerating the delivery of AI-enabled capabilities, scaling the Department-wide impact of AI, and synchronizing DoD AI activities to expand Joint Force advantages," Shanahan said. The director of the JAIC will report directly to Deasy. The goal for the JAIC is to enable DoD's various components "to swiftly introduce new capabilities and effectively experiment with new operational concepts in support of DoD's warfighting missions and business functions," Shannon said. The first step in the establishment of the JAIC tasks Deasy with reporting back within 30 days with an initial list of national mission initiatives – "large-scale efforts to apply AI to a cluster of closely related, urgent, joint challenges" – to be launched within the next 90 days, proposed resource allocations for fiscal years 2018 and 2019, and personnel requirements.