Marines’ First AI Fellowship Aims to Build an AI-Literate Force

The U.S. Marine Corps has launched its first AI fellowship program in partnership with the Naval Postgraduate School to accelerate artificial intelligence adoption across the force. Modeled after the Air Force’s Phantom program at MIT, the five-month pilot trains Marines to identify command-level problems and develop AI-driven solutions that support operational readiness.

Christopher Paul, the school’s Marine Corps Chair for Information, explained how projects from the fellowship, such as using large language models to streamline vehicle maintenance paperwork or automating cyber vulnerability testing, reduce tedious tasks and improve mission outcomes. He also discussed how this initiative fits into the Corps’ broader digital transformation strategy and what it could mean for future human-machine teaming on the battlefield.