NASA is moving to treat data and software as strategic assets as it expands AI across its scientific, engineering and business operations, according to an October 9 MeriTalk report.

Acting Chief Data and Super Intelligence Officer Kevin Murphy said the agency is expanding APIs to make internal information more accessible to authorized users. NASA also plans to connect engineering databases, wind tunnels, computing environments and other systems. The work supports missions including lunar exploration and development of next-generation experimental aircraft.

NASA is also exploring how to use its roughly 200 petabytes of publicly available scientific data for AI development.

Data Ecosystems Become AI Infrastructure

For chief data officers (CDOs), NASA’s approach illustrates why AI deployment depends on the underlying data ecosystem.

APIs improve access, but agencies also need consistent definitions, access controls, ownership and safeguards for sensitive information. NASA is still determining how to govern AI agents that can access data or perform tasks across connected systems.

The strategy reinforces the importance of data-management processes that make information discoverable, reliable and usable across organizational boundaries.