US Defense Department's Joint Staff Wants an Internal Chief Data and AI Office

The U.S. Department of Defense's Joint Staff is contemplating establishing an internal Chief Data and AI Office dedicated to maximizing AI capabilities, Defensescoop reported.

Recently the Joint Staff concluded a 90-day intensive effort to explore AI application use cases and determine future organizational structures necessary to sustain AI-driven capabilities within the Joint Staff. 

Lt. Gen. Todd Isaacson, Director of the Joint Staff's J-6 Command, Control, Communications, Computers, & Cyber Bureau, revealed that the organization now wants an in-house Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office.

“Currently we have a Chief Data Officer and I serve as the Chief Information Officer, but we’re looking at ways to reorganize the Joint Staff to get after what I think is some open field running and a real opportunity for us to continue to evolve. This was inward looking at the Joint Staff. As you might imagine, the outcomes were very, very promising,”  Isaacson said during a keynote address at AFCEA's TechNet Cyber conference on Thursday.

Isaacson further revealed that the AI task force of the Joint Staff undertook an internal assessment, examining the workflows of all eight directorates in a detailed manner. The objective was to identify opportunities for integrating existing AI capabilities from the commercial sector to enhance efficiency within the organization.

“What we found in that 90-day sprint was we had more use cases than we could actually get after. So, we were super excited about that outcome,” Isaacson added.