Pentagon Shakes Up AI, Digital Bureaucracies.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin
• Position: Algorithmic Warfare

* In December, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks made waves when she issued a memo announcing the creation of a new key role that would report directly to her: the chief digital and artificial intelligence officer.

The individual selected for the position--which was slated to become effective Feb. 1--will oversee three critical Pentagon offices: the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, Office of the Chief Data Officer and Defense Digital Service. As of press time, the Pentagon had not announced who had been chosen for the role.

"The department has made significant strides in unlocking the power of its data, harnessing artificial intelligence and providing digital solutions for the Joint Force," Hicks said in the memo. "Yet stronger alignment and synchronization are needed to accelerate decision advantage and generate advanced capabilities for our warfighters."

The official in the new position, also known as CDAO, will be responsible for strengthening and integrating data, AI and digital solutions within the Pentagon, Hicks said. The office is expected to reach full operating capability by June 1.

Officials and experts say the move will help the Pentagon accelerate its adoption of AI and other digital technologies.

"It's going to allow us that stronger alignment to really accelerate into the future in a more formal manner," the Pentagon's Chief Data Officer David Spirk said during a media roundtable hosted by George Washington University's Project for Media and National Security in January. "I don't view it as a bureaucracy--if anything, I think the establishment of this activity knocks down some bureaucratic walls because it puts all of us under one vision."

The shakeup shows that the Pentagon is doubling down on a data-driven future and ensures that today's focus on data management isn't just a passing fad, he said.

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, former head of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, said the creation of the position is a natural evolution for the Defense Department.

"This is the next important step of three different organizations that have been working toward similar ends, but not always aligned as closely as they could have been," he said. "Not only are the three organizations interrelated, they are intertwined in that they all deal with the same big problems the department has with software, with data, with AI, with emerging technologies."

Shanahan--who retired from the Air Force in 2020 and is...