Spearheading the move is an $80 million contract with consulting firm Deloitte.

The Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) has commenced the development of cloud platforms that could be used by the military’s AI developers to innovate new uses, including in defense. The JAIC has already migrated its main AI initiatives in preventive maintenance and humanitarian relief to a prototype cloud under development with consulting firm Deloitte. (Bloomberg Government)

Joint Common Foundation

The JAIC is also developing an overarching AI development space dubbed the Joint Common Foundation (JCF). Various individual departmental clouds will mesh into the JCF. These include the Air Force’s Cloud One and the Joint Enterprise Defence Infrastructure (JEDI).

In a speech delivered Wednesday at the DOD Artificial Intelligence Symposium and Exposition, Secretary of Defense Dr. Mark T Esper said regarding the proposed platform:

“The JAIC is also lowering technical barriers to AI adoption by building a cloud-based platform to allow DoD components to test, validate, and field capabilities with greater speed, at greater scale. The goal is to make AI tools and data accessible across the force, which will help synchronize projects and reduce redundancy, among many other benefits.”

Furthermore, in his speech, Dr. Esper drew attention to the rapid advances being made by China and Russia in AI technology and its application to military and omniscient surveillance.

Contours of the JCF

Nand Mulchandani, the acting director of the JAIC, said the JCF is not a cloud platform. However, it “will ride on top of the Jedi and actually other cloud environments.”

Mulchandani also commented that the system will comprise a host of development tools including commercial products and open source. Deployment by Deloitte through the JCF will grant the military’s developer community access to cutting-edge AI tools.

Combat simulation

In a recently conducted F-16 combat simulation, an AI-controlled system comprehensively defeated an experienced Air Force fighter pilot.

In his speech, Dr. Esper described the simulation as “an example of the tectonic impact of machine learning on the future of warfighting.”

“History informs us that those who are first to harness once-in-a-generation technologies often have a decisive advantage of the battlefield for years to come,” he said.

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