A project launched by the Pentagon's chief artificial intelligence office in response to the coronavirus pandemic has provided several lessons to help in a pivot toward developing AI tools for war. The Joint Artificial Intelligence Center's COVID-19 project, called Project Salus, delivered AI tools to leaders at U.S. Northern Command, with which they predicted shortfalls in food and medical supplies. With Project Salus, the JAIC focused on quick development and delivery of the tools -- an effort that has taught several lessons as the center moves forward with its joint war-fighting effort and as its acting director pushes the organization to become "the world's best software company." "With Project Salus, one of the key things that we pivoted on was the ability for us very quickly -- in a couple weeks -- to get a base product that really didn't have a great looking [user interface] or other pieces there, but had the core functionality in the hands of NORTHCOM leaders," JAIC acting Director Nand Mulchandani said at a Sept. 10 news conference. The leaders provides "feedback on what was working and not working," Mulchandani added.

The coronavirus pandemic has revealed that "just-in-time" supply lines don't always operate as they should. Fortune 500 companies use predictive analytics to improve their ability to deal with the unexpected -- and now so do planners with U.S. Northern Command. The Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, or JAIC, has built a prototype AI tool that uses a wide variety of data streams to predict COVID-19 hotspots and related logistics and supply-chain problems. "You have to be looking a little in the future," said Nand Mulchandani, chief technical officer at the JAIC. Dubbed Salus, for the Roman goddess of health and well-being, the tool can work on a scale as wide as the entire nation but can also drill down on specific zip codes and, in some cases, individual stores, said Mulchandani.