Establishment of the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer
Abstract
On December 8, 2021, the DSD issued a memo establishing the CDAO as the Department’s senior official responsible for strengthening and integrating data, artificial intelligence, and digital solutions in the Department. The memorandum establishes the CDAO as the “successor organization to the JAIC”. The CDAO reached IOC on February 1, 2022 and will integrate the JAIC, the DDS, the OCDO, and Advana as it approaches FOC on June 1, 2022. The integration of the JAIC, OCDO, DDS, and Advana into the CDAO more comprehensively restructures how the Department approaches the complex and dynamic challenges of becoming a digital, data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled enterprise capable of operating at the speed and scale necessary to accelerate the Department’s adoption of data, analytics, and AI to generate decision advantage. The functions of the CDAO are as follows: lead and oversee DoD’s strategy development and policy formulation for data, analytics, and AI; break down barriers to data and AI adoption within DoD institutional processes; create enabling digital infrastructure and services that support Components’ development and deployment of data, analytics, AI, and digital-enabled solutions; selectively scale proven digital and AI-enabled solutions focused on enterprise and joint use cases; and surge digital services for rapid response to crises and emergent challenges. This also requires CDAO to integrate the capabilities, personnel, resources, and governance of its constituent organizations, while concurrently sustaining momentum on priority projects that align to CDAO’s mission. These include expanding the enterprise data repository; establishing a responsible AI ecosystem; executing the ADA initiative; and developing a Data, Analytics, and AI Adoption Strategy. These various lines of effort will support the overarching mission of accelerating the Department’s adoption of data, analytics, and AI to preserve decision advantage across the Joint Force. CDAO develops, tests, prototypes, and demonstrates innovative AI, Machine Learning (ML), data infrastructure, and model/ algorithm test and assessment capabilities to integrate AI/ML capabilities across numerous domains and technical areas including maintenance and supply chain, personnel recovery, infrastructure assessment, geospatial monitoring during disaster, and cyber-threat situational awareness using AI anomaly detection and network exploration techniques. CDAO develops and evaluates integrated prototype technologies in realistic operating environments with DoD entities to assess the performance or cost reduction potential of applying such advanced technology to scale across multiple services. CDAO does this by aligning rapid prototype projects under Warfighter Support and leverages existing commercial technology for DoD use, built upon a common architecture that enables the DoD to rapidly scale AI Enterprise Capabilities.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2023
- Source ID
- 4a5abfa8bddc548fa087f605b4a3e4d7