ARLINGTON, Va., June 07, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Black Cape, Inc., an Arlington, Virginia-headquartered dual-use technology company, has been awarded a spot on the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) Data Readiness for Artificial Intelligence Development (DRAID) Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA). The DRAID Program is a potential five-year, $241.6 million award focused on enabling the Department of Defense (DoD) to optimize its vast data resources to leverage AI to enhance its mission effectiveness. The multi-award BOA includes a range of tasks needed to create, acquire, curate, prepare, and manage data for use in DOD artificial intelligence and machine learning models and application development, all areas where Black Cape maintains extensive experience in the national security and defense space. "We are honored to have been selected for this important effort to bring artificial intelligence enabled tools and applications to the JAIC," said Al Di Leonardo, Co-Founder and CEO of Black Cape. Black Cape technologies are used across Government, the Intelligence Community, DoD, and US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) to provide analytic services, artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.

On Jan. 11, the Air Force concluded the first department-wide, secret classification innovation hackathon at Nellis Air Force Base inside the Threat Training Center's hangar following six days of 24-hour operations. Working beneath the wings of MiG jets strewn with duct-taped network and power cables, over 80 hackers – product managers, engineers, pilots, and data and visualization scientists – of experience ranging from E-3 to general officer and with contributions from 12 industry partners – developed capabilities leveraging Air Force weapons, sensor, health and maintenance data. These new capabilities were demonstrated during a science fair-style exhibition. The approximately 200 hackers, support staff, attendees and judges came from Air Force software engineering groups, software factories, and flight and frontline units. The group included 15 general officer-level attendees and judges including the Air Force's vice chief of staff, chief data officer, chief experience officer, chief science officer, and additional senior members from Air Combat Command.

As the 21st century rages on, success and failure of nations depends not only on their citizenry and governmental leadership, but heavily on the technological visions that countries embrace. If a nation takes the approach of sitting back or standing still as automation and Artificial Intelligence advance at ever increasing rates, that nation is destined to be left behind. However, if a country embraces AI and dedicates significant resources and top minds to ethical implementation, that country is destined to be a leader for decades to come. Recently Steve Mills, Chief AI Ethics Officer & Leader for Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector, and Partner at Boston Consulting Group said quite eloquently "AI has become table stages for global national economic and technological competitiveness. This goes beyond nations capturing a piece of the large and rapidly growing AI market. AI is poised to transform nearly every industry. There is an imperative for nations to position themselves to integrate AI into these sectors. Particularly those sectors that are economically important to them. Failing to do so could erode their competitive position, creating opportunities for other, more technologically advanced nations to fill the void. This is not just a matter of missed upside potential from the new AI market. It's also about downside risk for every other sector that is economically important to a nation."

The Department of Defense Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) is continuing to operationalize Responsible Artificial Intelligence with the announcement of a pilot of a procurement review process that will ensure AI acquired by the JAIC is aligned with DoD's AI Ethics Principles. The DoD AI Ethics Principles, along with operational commitments, are outlined in the recently issued memorandum on implementing responsible AI. Responsible AI Institute will support the pilot. "The development of a tactical responsible AI procurement process is essential for creating the necessary safeguards aligned with our AI Ethics Principles and further implement against the responsible AI tenants set forth by the Deputy Secretary of Defense," says Alka Patel, Chief of Responsible AI at the JAIC. The Responsible AI Procurement pilot is part of a holistic approach that focuses not only on the technology but also on organizational operating structures and culture to advance Responsible AI within the DoD.

Congress signaled its confidence in the Pentagon's young artificial intelligence office through a series of measures to increases its standing in the agency, including giving its director acquisition authority. The annual defense policy bill, called the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, would alter the reporting structure of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, raising the office to report directly to the deputy secretary of defense, instead of the department's chief information officer. The bill, which still needs President Donald Trump's approval, establishes a board of advisers to give the center strategic advice and technical expertise on AI matters. The measures to bolster the importance of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center come as the organization pivots from focusing on artificial intelligence projects to identifying and solving problems within the services using AI. The JAIC was established in 2018 to increase the adoption of AI across the Pentagon.

As the 21st century rages on, success and failure of nations depends not only on their citizenry and governmental leadership, but heavily on the technological visions that countries embrace. If a nation takes the approach of sitting back or standing still as automation and Artificial Intelligence advance at ever increasing rates, that nation is destined to be left behind. However, if a country embraces AI and dedicates significant resources and top minds to ethical implementation, that country is destined to be a leader for decades to come. Recently Steve Mills, Chief AI Ethics Officer & Leader for Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector, and Partner at Boston Consulting Group said quite eloquently "AI has become table stages for global national economic and technological competitiveness. This goes beyond nations capturing a piece of the large and rapidly growing AI market. AI is poised to transform nearly every industry. There is an imperative for nations to position themselves to integrate AI into these sectors. Particularly those sectors that are economically important to them. Failing to do so could erode their competitive position, creating opportunities for other, more technologically advanced nations to fill the void. This is not just a matter of missed upside potential from the new AI market. It's also about downside risk for every other sector that is economically important to a nation."

As the 21st century rages on, success and failure of nations depends not only on their citizenry and governmental leadership, but heavily on the technological visions that countries embrace. If a nation takes the approach of sitting back or standing still as automation and Artificial Intelligence advance at ever increasing rates, that nation is destined to be left behind. However, if a country embraces AI and dedicates significant resources and top minds to ethical implementation, that country is destined to be a leader for decades to come. Recently Steve Mills, Chief AI Ethics Officer & Leader for Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector, and Partner at Boston Consulting Group said quite eloquently "AI has become table stages for global national economic and technological competitiveness. This goes beyond nations capturing a piece of the large and rapidly growing AI market. AI is poised to transform nearly every industry. There is an imperative for nations to position themselves to integrate AI into these sectors. Particularly those sectors that are economically important to them. Failing to do so could erode their competitive position, creating opportunities for other, more technologically advanced nations to fill the void. This is not just a matter of missed upside potential from the new AI market. It's also about downside risk for every other sector that is economically important to a nation."

WASHINGTON – The leader of the Pentagon's artificial intelligence hub said Tuesday that he wants the office to become the "world's best software company." Nand Mulchandani, acting director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, said he wants the DoD to be in a place where service members can write lines of code quickly to do a specific task, receive an authorization to operate quickly and perform the function and throw the code away. If that's the case "we will have won the next war," he said, "because that level of agility and insight and reconfigurability is where we want to be. "We'll be the world's best software company; we happen to be in the military business," Mulchandani said, said on a webinar hosted by the Institute for Security and Technology. The cornerstone of the JAIC's work is the Joint Common Foundation, a recently awarded platform that's designed to provide common artificial intelligence tools and datasets across the Defense Department in an effort to knock down silos.

The Defense Information Systems Agency awarded a $106 million contract to Deloitte Consulting to build the Pentagon's artificial intelligence hub's AI development platform, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Aug. 12. The company will "design and build" the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center's Joint Common Foundation, a capability that DoD AI leadership has stated will be integral in developing, testing and fielding AI capabilities. The contract has a one-year base period worth $31 million with three option years through August 2024. Work is scheduled to start Aug. 17, according to Lt. Cmdr. "The Joint Common Foundation will provide an AI development environment to test, validate and field AI capabilities at scale across the Department of Defense," Abrahamson said. "The impact of the JCF will come from enterprise‐wide access to AI tools and data for AI developers across the Department and its partners that will help synchronize AI projects, reduce development redundancy and enable the broad deployment of AI-enabled solutions to the tactical edge where front line operators can benefit from these capabilities."

Think of artificial intelligence, and the mind often goes to industrial robots and benign surveillance systems. Increasingly, though, these are steppingstones for Big Brother to enhance capabilities in domestic security and international military warfare. China has co-opted a controversial big data policing program into law enforcement, both for racial profiling of its Uighur minority population and for broader citizen surveillance through facial recognition. Wuhan has an entirely AI-staffed police station. But experts say China's artificial intelligence research is also being adapted for unconventional military warfare in the country's bid to dominate the field over the next decade.