Pentagon processes ‘antithetical’ to AI developement, former Google CEO warns
Summary
WASHINGTON ― The Pentagon’s onerous acquisition pipeline is “antithetical to prioritizing” artificial intelligence and must change if the country hopes to stay ahead of China, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said Friday. At a hearing on the the commission’s new recommendations, its members highlighted ways to retool Defense Department acquisition management system, in addition to boosting AI research and development spending by $40 billion over the next five years. “My own view is that the DoD should set up some kind of technology insertion program, where they literally go and try to get this stuff in, because it’s so strategic and so important to the mission of the DoD.” Commissioner Gilman Louie, the former chief executive of In-Q-Tel, the intelligence community’s venture capital arm, said DoD needs regulatory and cultural change adapted to software that continuously evolves and must be “consumed as a fuel that fuels our systems.” “All of our acquisitions are designed for building big systems, and these kind of monolithic upgrades,” Louie said. He added: “We need professionals who know how to acquire software and understand the basic underpinnings of AI.” Funding is part of the solution, former Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work, the commission’s vice chairman, told lawmakers. “One of the ways to get these algorithms and models across the valley of death and into the hands go the warfighter would be if Congress would create a dedicated AI fund, specifically designed to speed operational prototyping and transition overseen by the undersecretary for R&E.” Rapid adoption also requires “strong top-down” leadership at DoD, Work said, and there were several recommendations to that effect.