DOD CDAO and DIU Sign Agreement to Accelerate AI Adoption

The Department of Defense’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) and Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) recently signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) at the DIU headquarters to accelerate the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI).

The MOA was signed by Douglas Beck, Director of DIU and Dr. Radha Plumb, CDAO and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense.

"The close partnership with DIU will enable us to bring the best of industry into our enterprise infrastructure to provide crucial digital and AI capabilities," said Dr. Radha Plumb.

The MOA highlights four key areas both parties will work towards:

1. Scaling commercial AI into DoD

2. Accelerating autonomy development and fielding

3. Experimenting with digital technologies for CJADC2

4. Collaborating on Department-level policy and governance efforts to accelerate AI and autonomy development and fielding and digital technologies adoption.

“CDAO’s leadership in driving enterprise-level architecture, tools, and policy makes them an invaluable partner in DIU’s core mission of bringing commercial capability to the warfighter with the focus, speed, and scale required to deter major conflict, or win if forced to fight. This partnership will help us help our commercial partners to scale their impact, fast,” said Beck.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) conducted a thorough evaluation aimed at determining the overall impact and "effectiveness" of the CDAO’s adoption of AI.

The evaluation is a part of the watchdog's continuous series of oversight projects focused on monitoring the Defense Department's execution of AI initiatives.