JAIC’s Data Platform Will Drive Department-Wide Innovation, Officials Say

Top Department of Defense officials have affirmed plans to make the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center more widely support the disparate AI efforts across the military services.

DoD Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy, a two-time Wash100 awardee, said he is committed to using JAIC’s Joint Common Foundation to serve as a force multiplier for the services, FedScoop reported.

“JAIC could never do all of the AI initiatives for the DOD. At the core of JAIC’s success has got to be this JCF,” Deasy said during FedScoop’s FedTalks 2020.

JCF is envisioned as an AI development environment consisting of cloud platforms where military developers can take advantage of emerging technologies.

The development space will be supported by several cloud platforms across the DoD, including the Air Force’s Cloud One and the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure.

Lt. Gen. Michael Groen, JAIC’s new director, said JCF will one day become more than just data storage and will be able to connect AI work across the Pentagon.

Groen said the process for developing the JCP platform will be gradual. JAIC will start with basic services and minimum viable products before moving on to testing more complex systems, the director said. “You can’t have an AI-driven enterprise without a platform,” Groen added.

In August, JAIC awarded Deloitte Consulting a four-year task deal worth $106M to build JCF. Deloitte will serve as the lead system integrator for all contractor service solutions for JCF.

“JCF will provide an AI development environment to test, validate, and field AI capabilities at scale across the Department of Defense,” JAIC Spokesman Arlo Abrahamson said in a statement.