Pentagon’s Generative AI Push is ‘Game-Changing,’ Official Says

Federal agencies are seeing a surge in artificial intelligence adoption that is transforming operations, IT officials said Friday at GovCIO Media & Research’s AI Summit in Tysons, Virginia.

Jake Glassman, deputy assistant secretary of war for Science and Technology Foundations, said the War Department is focused on utilizing AI toolsets to dramatically increase capabilities for other critical technology.

The Pentagon’s recent release of GenAI.mil, an internal platform providing generative AI tools to its military and civilian personnel, has been “game-changing,” he said. The new platform, which has had roughly 800,000 unique users since its launch, has created a ripple effect across the department.  

“So what that has done culturally is we’re starting to see the implementation of, ‘Well, I can do this with AI in my enterprise level stuff, but what can I do for a scale type of science now?’ And then you can boil that down to material science or seeker technology or RF, I mean, you can go on and on.” 

Zach Whitman, chief AI officer and data scientist at General Services Administration, said he’s also seen “a ton of experimentation and rapid adoption” of federal AI at GSA.

Under the new administration, GSA has positioned itself as an enabler of federal AI adoption, launching new tools like USAi.gov to help federal agencies modernize operations, boost workforce efficiency and strengthen mission delivery.

“Seeing the modality of the use of tools … And then looking at further field tool enablement is crazy exciting, because it’s so dynamic in that space that you can really take it in a lot of different directions,” Whitman said. 

He added that the next step for federal AI is looking at how the tools can be easily utilized by general users.

“I think the next step is going to be on the hands-off type of direct interaction with non-technical folks, rather than it being for just the developers, or the engineers, or the people in the business,” Whitman said. “Making this technology approachable in a hands-off way for non-technical folks in a safe and observable, controllable way for enterprise is, to me, where I expect this year and next year to go.”

Glassman said it’s almost impossible to predict the DOW’s AI capabilities in the next six months because the progress they’ve made in the last six months has been unprecedented. 

“Where this is going is mind boggling. I’d like to think that I was at the leading edge of AI in the department … I would never have thought we’d be where we are today, even six months ago. Where will we be six months from now?” he said. “This has impacted the department and impacted our mission. We can win. I never been more confident about winning technology areas than I am now.” 

In the immediate future, the Pentagon is focused on protecting DOW-funded research from malign foreign influence and intellectual property theft, according to a memo released Thursday.  

“Unfortunately, what’s happened is we’ve seen some rather nefarious actors who are partnering with a lot of these basic research elements, and essentially that’s getting funneled right back into our adversaries weapons,” he said.