Deputy CDAO Margaret Palmieri provided new details on Wednesday about the Pentagon’s achievements in GIDE 8 — and what’s to come in the next experiments in the series.

“We’re going to do an up-brief on GIDE 8, internal to the building, in a week or so. So, I’ll keep my comments a little bit more vague than if we had already briefed them out [to Defense Department leadership]. But we did” meet that aim to produce an MVC, Palmieri said at a Hudson Institute event.

In 2022, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks tasked the CDAO with relaunching and reinvigorating the GIDE series, which was previously facilitated by North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command.

For the newest GIDE projects, the CDAO was explicit in its intent to help test, optimize and integrate data systems with AI, to enable the realization of the Pentagon’s nascent CJADC2 construct for next-generation command and control.

“That minimum viable capability is largely a connection of existing capabilities that we have today that have shared data in new ways — and have brought together a combination of new applications and new data services, with users, to create better workflows,” Palmieri said.

“Now that we have done that in an experimentation environment, there are a couple of things that we need to consider as we bring them into operations. One is a full appropriation in [fiscal 2024], which is absolutely critical. We doubled-or-more our budget in the CDAO from [fiscal 2023 to 2024], and we don’t have any access to that funding right now to make minimum viable capability truly accessible and robust across the [enterprise]. And so we’re really excited about the potential for an appropriation,” she explained. 

That money can’t currently be tapped into because federal agencies are operating under a short-term continuing resolution.

Still, Palmieri noted that participants in the latest GIDE iterations have made new and informative connections inside of experimentation — where they deal with live data and live networks in real time — that can be adopted in their day-to-day processes moving forward.

“Absolutely, we have a new set of connections across multiple data fabrics and applications. In GIDE 9, we are going to align with a couple exercises the Army’s doing in Project Convergence 4 —  because we really want to see how the combatant commands and the joint task forces now take that down to a tactical level with a service,” Palmieri said.

That will happen in the March time frame, she confirmed.

After that, for GIDE 10, the CDAO plans to engage with Indo-Pacific Command’s Valiant Shield exercise series, which is a U.S.-only, biennial field training exercise that, historically, focuses on integrating joint training in relation to current operational plans.

“We’re really trying to take GIDE to align with existing activities and start to bring those data connections closer to stuff that people are already doing,” Palmieri told DefenseScoop.

The post Experiments enabled a CJADC2 minimum viable capability—but it’s not fully accessible yet, Pentagon says appeared first on DefenseScoop.

DefenseScoop reported earlier this month that Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks had recently selected a small number of capabilities — but not specific systems — that will be prioritized for the initial tranche, and that DOD officials planned to brief lawmakers in January. Those briefings are now underway, Aditi Kumar, deputy director for strategy, policy and national security partnerships at the Defense Innovation Unit, said Wednesday at a Hudson Institute event.

The goal for the first increment is to deliver thousands of relatively low-cost, “attritable” systems by early- to mid-2025 to help the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command counter China’s military buildup.

“Replicator is end to end … It is delivering the autonomous attritable systems into the hands of the warfighter. And so we are looking at all aspects of that project lifecycle. A lot of the initial focus was, let’s define the operational need, let’s make it really crisp. And we worked very closely with Indo-Pacom to do that … down to the specifics of: What day is it? What is the weather? What is happening? What are the target sets that we’re going after? And what are the types of capabilities that you need, no kidding, to really, you know, make a difference in that scenario?” Kumar said.

DIU has been tapped to help implement the initiative with support from the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO).

“The training piece of this is a huge focus. The information strategy piece of this is a huge focus. And so we’ve got all of the right experts, data and AI training … CDAO is a great partner in this helping us think through, you know what that piece needs to look like. So it’s bringing all of those together so that when we deliver this in the end, it is the full capability,” Kumar said.

Margaret Palmieri, deputy chief digital artificial intelligence officer, said autonomy is an area where the CDAO is working to help the Pentagon push out new capabilities.

She noted previous work done by the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), which was eventually folded into the CDAO along with other Defense Department offices when the new organization was stood up.

“The Joint AI Center had started a really interesting project called ‘smart sensor’. They wanted a fully autonomous MQ-9 [drone], not just the aircraft vehicle, but the sensors. And so for several years, DOD has been looking at how do you really do unmanned autonomy enabled by AI. And so Replicator is actually just here at a really great time. We’re looking at, you know, how to do a … AI data hub as part of Replicator to accelerate that learning across multiple companies and different services. And so I think the autonomy use cases is front and center in our mind. And to bring those best practices, we are really focused on the scaffolding we call it — which are kind of not necessarily all of the potential AI projects that we could do inside of CDAO, but really how do we enable all of the other organizations inside the government to have access to labeled data and not have to go find it themselves?” Palmieri said at the Hudson Institute event.

She didn’t say when the envisioned hub might be established.

Now that Hicks has made her capability picks, Pentagon officials are in talks with lawmakers about the road ahead.

“We’re in the middle of briefing them right now on the capability selection, and all of the things that I just laid out our plans for delivering the capabilities. And I think it’s an interesting time, obviously, with the budget cycle to go to Congress with a portfolio. And so we’re working with them on the best funding strategies to realize what we’re trying to do with Replicator [increment] 1 … They’re a partner to us as we try to execute these initiatives, and Replicator is obviously going to be the priority over the coming weeks,” Kumar said.

Defense officials have indicated that they may be tight-lipped about certain aspects of Replicator, including which specific systems are selected to meet the capability needs.

“The services are identifying the specific systems. Our next step is to work with Congress. So we will be briefing them, we’re in the middle of briefing them, in fact, and having the funding conversation. I think on the public announcement, that’s going to be something that happens after we have completed our briefings to Congress. And it is also part of this broader information strategy that I mentioned is — we have to think through, you know, what parts of Replicator we want to speak about publicly, and then what parts we want to reserve because that is what the operational needs mandate. And so the department is working through those, and then we’ll share information at the appropriate time,” Kumar said.

The post Pentagon contemplating AI hub for Replicator initiative; Hill briefings underway appeared first on DefenseScoop.

“We’re working on a revised Data Analytics and AI Adoption Strategy right now. Hopefully by the end of the summer, we’ll see that out,” she said during an event hosted by the Center for International and Strategic Studies on Friday.

The document will give organizations within the Pentagon some “left and right guidance” for how they can develop solutions in these technology areas, Palmieri said. 

“It’ll talk a lot about how we have to approach this in an iterative and agile way. And then, it’ll not necessarily have specific milestones — you know, a lot of strategies have task 1.1, 1.2 — it’s not going to be one of those strategies,” she said. “It’s going to be something where organizations can nest inside of it and start to put their plans inside.”

Several disparate agencies in the Office of the Secretary of Defense were reorganized in 2021 to create the CDAO, including the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), Defense Digital Service and Chief Data Officer. The new strategy being worked on at CDAO is building off previous guidance published by the JAIC, Palmieri said.

That earlier blueprint “did a really good job of outlining near-, mid- and long-term goals — many of which the department hit and some of which we didn’t,” she said. “As we built the new strategy, we asked ourselves why. And so a lot of that had to do with, where are we really thinking through agile processes and were we paying attention to that.”

Leaders across the Defense Department have publically emphasized the importance of becoming a data-centric and AI-proficient organization through agile software development principles that allow for constant updates to technologies. However, a recent report from the Government Accountability Office noted that agile development of AI could look different compared to traditional software.

“Since AI typically requires vast amounts of data to learn a function and can behave differently or unexpectedly once deployed, officials from the Joint AI Center and DOD’s Defense Digital Service previously cautioned against rushing to a proof of concept or minimum viable product for AI capabilities that support warfighting operations. Given the need for data, training, and testing for operational usefulness, it may take longer to get to a minimally viable product for AI than for traditional software Agile projects,” the report stated.

Palmieri said one of the linchpins to future CDAO strategies will recognize that AI requires even more constant iterative updates than traditional software applications.

“We want the user inside of the system that has artificial intelligence to be constantly correcting and guiding the system in terms of feedback,” she said. “So this idea that we’re much more iterative is a key anchor point.”

The post Updated data analytics, AI strategy coming from CDAO by end of summer appeared first on DefenseScoop.

The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) “just added” 10 new data- and AI-related “work roles” to recruit personnel for the Pentagon’s cyber workforce, Deputy Chief Digital and AI Officer Margie Palmieri announced on Tuesday. The Office of the Secretary of Defense’s team for research and engineering is also leading a new work-role pathway for software experts, she confirmed. 

“We see a lot of really sharp folks inside of DOD that are just really interested in getting into this space — but lack a clear career path to do that,” Palmieri said during a panel hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Though she didn’t go deep into any specifics, Palmieri suggested that the department has reformed its cybersecurity-aligned workforce framework to grant the same special authorities Congress permits to its cyber hiring permissions efforts, to now cover new AI, data and software career positions and specialties.

The DOD’s Cyber Workforce Framework (DCWF) is a hierarchical structure that contains broad categories, specialty areas and work roles. In that guiding document, work-roles organize and describe the skills employees need to execute key functions. 

Palmieri noted that this addition of new roles “also gives us the ability to direct-hire because it’s part of the cyber workforce — and it gives us the ability to provide higher pay than the regular kind of general schedule employee.”

This move to extend hiring options is part of a broader initiative via which the Pentagon is “really trying to digitize our workforce,” she added.

As the department’s “community manager” for these new data and AI positions, the CDAO is exploring how to define those job descriptions, studying talent pipelines and puzzling out how they might best up-skill the existing federal workforce in these fields.

Palmieri would not estimate how many new recruits this shift could bring into the department.

“I mean, that’s the work we’re about to go and do, because they aren’t coded out there. And so we will help define the work roles and then we’re going to find the people that want to self-select into the community — or that managers want to reskill to bring into the community,” Palmieri said.

She also confirmed the CDAO is preparing to release a new data and AI implementation strategy “by the end of the summer.”

The post DOD moves to ‘digitize’ its workforce with new AI, data and software career pathways appeared first on DefenseScoop.

“The pieces of Maven that have been just revolutionary have been in the computer vision space, and specifically on [geospatial intelligence-types] of capabilities,” Palmieri told DefenseScoop at the Association of Old Crows annual convention in Washington.  

First conceptualized around 2017, Project Maven was created to accelerate AI and machine learning capabilities that could enable U.S. service members to digitally detect and follow objects, or humans of interest, from media captured by the military’s surveillance aircraft, satellites and other assets — and ultimately apply data technology to better grasp combat operations. The program originally launched under the purview of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security (I&S), but its place is shifting as associated capabilities are evolving and the DOD is reorganizing.

Earlier this year, Pentagon leadership confirmed plans to split the requirements for some of Maven’s elements between the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the DOD’s new Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO). I&S is still responsible for broad oversight of the program. 

However, the timeline for those transition plans was recently set back — along with other DOD modernization and innovation efforts — because Congress did not pass a final defense appropriations bill for fiscal 2023, prior to the Sept. 30 deadline. Federal agencies, including the Defense Department, are currently operating under a CR that will expire Dec. 16. 

“Really the one thing that has prevented the formal transition is that [continuing resolution] and we’re just waiting to go through that process. But I would say the teams are up and running, and engineering — they’re ready to go. We’re excited to see what they’re putting together,” Palmieri said. 

Despite that appropriations-related holdup, officials from the CDAO, NGA and I&S “have conversations pretty frequently,” she added. 

This week, the executive board for Maven that the CDAO sits on with I&S, NGA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is expected to meet, she noted.

“We get together often to talk about that transition,” Palmieri said, without providing more details on the agenda for the upcoming discussion.

In Maven’s next chapter, all lines of its effort related to geospatial intelligence, or GEOINT, will fall under NGA. Other pieces of the project that are not associated with GEOINT work will move to Palmieri’s team at the CDAO, she noted.

“And there are some other capabilities there I can’t talk about here, but we will look at how to build out the same type of approach Maven used for these non-GEOINT types of use cases,” she said.

The post DOD components slated to take over Project Maven are engaging ‘frequently’ while the transition is delayed appeared first on DefenseScoop.

The Chief Digital and AI Office’s (CDAO) Governing Council — a 4-star level governance body run by this newly established office that falls under the deputy defense secretary — has replaced the former AI Executive Steering Group, which was a 3-star level governance body led by the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), according to the new RAI Strategy and Implementation Pathway.

“For any business that we want to do on behalf of the department, that’s our place to get out, to collaborate and to really get the feedback from all the different stakeholders we need in the organization before we bring that to the deputy [secretary of defense],” Margaret Palmierei, deputy chief digital and AI officer, told FedScoop this week.

When several disparate agencies — including the JAIC — were recently reorganized to operate under the new CDAO, more than 20 different working groups, governance forums and other cadres associated with data analytics and AI under their purview also came with them.

“In government, we tend to love to just add new things — but in this case, we said, ‘Let’s simplify and bring all those different governing forums under one council,’” Palmieri explained.

The Pentagon’s newly named Chief Digital and AI Officer in charge of the CDAO, Craig Martell, is the chair of this council. Through the new coordination unit, he’ll engage directly with senior military and Defense Department leaders on a range of topics associated with the high-priority emerging technology. 

“It really, I think, brings more transparency to all the different efforts across the department and allows our stakeholders to have a voice at the table as we start to take on the systemic aspects of this and the department. And it makes sure that, you know, as we elevate issues to the deputy level, we can represent all those different positions in the same place,” Palmieri said.

Greg Allen, director of the AI Governance Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the former director of strategy and policy at the JAIC — said this elevation in governance marks the “clearest sign yet that [DOD] leadership views accelerating AI transformation and doing so responsibly as something that top leadership needs to be spending their time on.”

Elements of the new pathway reflect the fact that there’s still plenty of work to do in this area, but that Pentagon’s higher-ups are serious about this work, he noted.

Still, “one question that this document doesn’t answer is, on what issues will the governing council issue decisions, rather than advisory recommendations?” Allen said.

The former AI steering group was primarily an advisory body, though it did also vet decisions by some important decision-makers, such as the Deputy’s Management Action Group.

“That was appropriate at the time, given how young and small the JAIC was — but it’s time for DOD AI governance to take the next step,” Allen said. 

Although Palmieri didn’t confirm whether that’s all sorted out just yet, she noted that “to the extent that the deputy secretary wants to delegate certain decisions to the CDAO, we are ready to make those decisions.”

The post Pentagon elevates key AI governance body appeared first on DefenseScoop.

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.

New hires include: 

• Chief Digital and AI Officer – Craig Martell
• Deputy CDAO – Margaret Palmieri
• DCDAO for Acquisition – Sharothi Pikar
• DCDAO for Policy, Strategy and Governance – Clark Cully
• DCDAO for Enterprise Platforms and Business Optimization – Greg Little
• DCDAO for Algorithmic Warfare – Joe Larson
• DCDAO for Digital Services – Katie (Olson) Savage
• Chief Operating Officer – Dan Folliard
• Chief Technology Officer – Bill Streilein
• Chief of AI Assurance – Jane Pinelis

Diane Staheli was also recently tapped to lead the CDAO’s Responsible AI (RAI) Division.

Several of these officials have already made waves within DOD, including founder and former director of the Navy’s digital warfare office Margaret Palmieri, and Joe Larson, who previously served as deputy chief for the Pentagon’s Project Maven.

In these new roles at the CDAO, the officials will help steer the Pentagon’s strategy development and policy formulation for associated solutions; enable data access and AI adoption within appropriate institutional processes; establish a strong digital infrastructure and services to support military and department components’ AI- and digital-driven deployments, and more.

The CDAO is targeting October 1 for the full administrative alignment of personnel and resources, the spokesperson told FedScoop.

The post Pentagon announces new leadership for chief digital, AI office appeared first on DefenseScoop.