Nerd 3 we need to go deeper software#

Workers at Microsoft staged protests over that company’s military contracts the same year. Project Maven, an Air Force initiative to collaborate with tech firms, sparked controversy in 2019 when Google employees protested the company's decision to develop technology for analyzing aerial imagery. But attempts to increase technological resources by working closely with Silicon Valley have been fraught. Given the scarcity of in-house talent, the Pentagon has turned to the private sector for help. Small trials have shown that the technology can help manage logistics, predict when machinery will fail, and improve veteran care.īut the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, a Pentagon initiative to assess the changing technology landscape, has warned that the US needs to invest more in new technologies and work more closely with the private sector to avoid being blindsided by China. There are many ways AI and other technology could benefit the US military besides aiding with intelligence gathering and analysis or making weapons smarter.

Nerd 3 we need to go deeper software#

Emsi, a company that tracks job listings, says 33 percent of 370,000 defense industry job advertisements it analyzed mention software development or data science skills, a figure that has grown 91 percent since 2017. Job ads highlight the defense world's shift toward a software-centric outlook. There is some debate around how many software engineers and data scientists the DOD actually needs to hire itself, and how much of the work it can outsource. Martell was appointed by Hicks to help advance adoption and use of the technology. The latest move, on April 25, saw the Pentagon announce its first chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, Craig Martell, previously head of machine learning at Lyft. In August 2015, the department set up the Defense Innovation Unit, which is tasked with coordinating AI across different areas of the military.

The DOD has taken numerous steps to boost its technological chops, with a particular focus on AI. The board also notes that the DOD cannot typically compete with the salaries tech companies offer software developers. A 2019 report commissioned by the Defense Innovation Board, which provides the secretary of defense and deputy secretary of defense with recommendations around technology adoption, warns that software and its development has become a crucial strategic issue for the US military.