Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) has awarded contracts to four major US-based AI companies to expedite the military’s integration of advanced AI via the US Department of Defense (DoD).
Each of the four companies, namely Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI, will receive awards with a ceiling of $200m.
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The DoD will harness the expertise and innovation of these companies to create generative AI-driven workflows for various national security missions.
This initiative is expected to expand DoD’s engagement with AI capabilities and facilitate a deeper understanding among these tech companies of the national security requirements that their AI solutions can address.
DoD chief digital and AI officer Dr Doug Matty said: “The adoption of AI is transforming the Department’s ability to support our warfighters and maintain strategic advantage over our adversaries.
“Leveraging commercially available solutions into an integrated capabilities approach will accelerate the use of advanced AI as part of our Joint mission essential tasks in our warfighting domain as well as intelligence, business, and enterprise information systems.”
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By GlobalDataThe DoD is pursuing a “commercial-first” strategy to fast-track the implementation of AI.
The awards are part of this initiative, bringing advanced US-based AI expertise to bear on specific DoD challenges.
Additionally, the CDAO is facilitating access to some of the most recent generative AI models for general use by various defence entities through platforms like the Army’s Enterprise Large Language Model Workspace powered by Ask Sage.
This access extends to broader enterprise applications via embedded AI models in data and AI platforms such as Advancing Analytics (Advana), Maven Smart System, and Edge Data Mesh nodes.
These platforms are designed to integrate AI directly into data environment workflows.
In an effort to consolidate federal efforts around AI technology procurement and utilisation, the DoD is also collaborating with the General Services Administration (GSA).
This partnership aims to harness government-wide purchasing power for AI production and computational resources, ensuring that federal agencies have access to premier AI technologies.
In December 2024, CDAO initiated a new programme to expedite the deployment of advanced AI technologies within the US DoD.
