'The Five' discuss how AI generated images are getting harder to distinguish from reality and how the Dalai Lama asked a young boy to suck his tongue. The Pentagon is hiring data scientists, technologists and engineers as part of its effort to incorporate artificial intelligence into the machinery used to wage war. The Defense Department has posted several AI jobs on USAjobs.gov over the last few weeks, including many with salaries well into six figures. One of the higher paying jobs advertised in the last few weeks is for a senior technologist for "cognitive and decision science" at the U.S. Navy's Point Loma Complex in San Diego. That job starts at $170,000 and could pay as much as $212,000 year for someone who can help insert "cutting-edge technology" into Navy weaponry and equipment.

U.S. government investment in artificial intelligence has grown significantly in the last few years, as evidenced by the additional funding for AI research in President Biden's 2023 fiscal budget. With more than $2 billion allocated to the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Department of Energy for AI research and development, it is clear there is a growing enthusiasm for the technology in government. Driving the push to implement AI is the urgent need to address federal employee burnout. A recent study found that almost two-thirds of government employees are experiencing burnout, a much higher rate than seen in the private sector. Furthermore, almost half of respondents are considering leaving their government jobs within the next year due to increased burnout and stress.

After more than 100 days on the job, the U.S. Department of Defense's top artificial intelligence official said Thursday that the office's strategy will take a down-up approach and start with data. "It's true that most of my career has been in AI, but I don't think most of my work here at DoD will be about AI," Craig Martell, the Pentagon's first Chief Digital and AI Officer, said at the 2022 Intelligence & National Security Summit in National Harbor, Maryland. The Pentagon tapped Martell, a former head of machine learning at Lyft, to oversee its AI efforts this spring. The office subsumed multiple other defense digital authorities, including the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center and the Defense Digital Services, and reached full operational capability on June 1. While much of the talk about the CDAO has focused on its role as the Pentagon's leading AI authority, Martell said more attention and energy needs to be paid to data, which he said serves as the basis of the office's "hierarchy of needs."

The U.S. Army is continuing to consider ways artificial intelligence, or AI, can augment and improve current operations for sustainment enterprises, including medical logistics. C.J. Lovelace, U.S. Army Medical Logistics Command, reports. Trezia Davenport and Alan Gonzalez, assigned to the 563rd Medical Logistics Company, assemble a tactical combat medical care resupply set in support of U.S. Forces Korea during an exercise at the Army's prepositioned stocks site in South Korea. Lt. Col. Marcus D. Perkins, immediate past commander of the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Center-Korea (USAMMC-K), took part as a panelist and medical logistics subject-matter expert during the virtual 2022 DOD Digital and AI Symposium in June. USAMMC-K is a direct reporting unit to U.S. Army Medical Logistics Command.

The Pentagon's new Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) has hired nearly a dozen senior leaders to serve in its top positions -- and met its June 1 deadline to reach full operating capability, FedScoop learned Wednesday. This news comes nearly six months after the Department of Defense launched a major organizational restructure to place a number of technology-driving components under this newly established office, with the ultimate aim to better scale digital and Al-enabled capabilities across its massive enterprise. "Following a multi-step process from [initial operating capability] to FOC the CDAO has fully merged and integrated the former component organizations of Advana, Chief Data Officer, Defense Digital Service, and Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. Legacy component names will no longer be recognized or used unless attributed to a product or capability specific to the department," according to a statement from CDAO's spokesperson. Diane Staheli was also recently tapped to lead the CDAO's Responsible AI (RAI) Division.

The Pentagon has tapped artificial intelligence ethics and research expert Diane Staheli to lead the Responsible AI (RAI) Division of its new Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO), FedScoop confirmed on Tuesday. In this role, Staheli will help steer the Defense Department's development and application of policies, practices, standards and metrics for buying and building AI that is trustworthy and accountable. She enters the position nearly nine months after DOD's first AI ethics lead exited the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), and in the midst of a broad restructuring of the Pentagon's main AI-associated components under the CDAO. "[Staheli] has significant experience in military-oriented research and development environments, and is a contributing member of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence AI Assurance working group," Sarah Flaherty, CDAO's public affairs officer, told FedScoop.

The Pentagon has tapped artificial intelligence ethics and research expert Diane Staheli to lead the Responsible AI (RAI) Division of its new Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO), FedScoop confirmed on Tuesday. In this role, Staheli will help steer the Defense Department's development and application of policies, practices, standards and metrics for buying and building AI that is trustworthy and accountable. She enters the position nearly nine months after DOD's first AI ethics lead exited the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), and in the midst of a broad restructuring of the Pentagon's main AI-associated components under the CDAO. "[Staheli] has significant experience in military-oriented research and development environments, and is a contributing member of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence AI Assurance working group," Sarah Flaherty, CDAO's public affairs officer, told FedScoop. Advanced computer-driven systems use AI to perform tasks that generally require some human intelligence.

The Department of Defense today announced that the Pentagon has hired Lyft Inc. head of machine learning Craig Martell as its first-ever chief digital and artificial intelligence officer. Martell will head up the DOD's Chief Digital and AI Office, which was created in December in order to centralize oversight of its data and AI initiatives under a single office in the Pentagon. As the person in charge of the CDAO, Martell will report directly to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. The CDAO launched with limited operational capability in February and is expected to achieve full operational capability by the end of June, FedScoop reported. He also has prior U.S. military experience thanks to his service as a tenured computer science professor at the Naval Postgraduate School, where he specialized in natural language processing.

The Pentagon is still new to wielding artificial intelligence, and it's looking to an outsider for help. Breaking Defense has learned Lyft machine learning head Craig Martell is joining the Defense Department as its Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAO). He'll lead the American military's strategies for AI, analytics and data, and should play a key part in a Joint All-Domain Command and Control initiative to improve multi-force combat awareness through technology. Martell is a partial outsider. While he directed the Naval Postgraduate School's AI-driven Natural Language Processing Lab for 11 years, he hasn't served in military leadership.

The Defense Department must become a digital and artificial intelligence-enabled enterprise capable of operating at the speed and scale necessary to preserve its military advantage, according to a memorandum issued by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H. Hicks. The memorandum, published on defense.gov, John Sherman, DOD chief information officer, will serve as the acting chief digital and artificial intelligence officer until the position is filled permanently. "[It's] an honor to be able to help get this organization stood up while performing my chief information officer duties," Sherman said today in a Pentagon media roundtable, adding that he has worked closely with several organizations to make sure the CDAO effort is launched on a solid footing. "This is a key milestone for the department to become a digital AI-enabled enterprise," a senior DOD official said in the roundtable.