“The integration of artificial intelligence technology is about trust, and a responsible AI ecosystem is the foundation for that trust,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen H. Hicks said today.
Speaking virtually to the opening of the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) Artificial Intelligence Symposium and Tech Exchange, Hicks said DoD’s operators must come to trust the outputs of artificial intelligence (AI) systems; its commanders must come to trust the legal, ethical, and moral foundations of explainable AI; and the American people must come to trust the values DoD has integrated into each of its applications.
“A key part of an AI-ready department is a strong data foundation,” Hicks said. “Data enables the creation of algorithmic models, and, with the right data, we are able to take concepts and ideas and turn them into reality.”
The deputy secretary said she recently set forth a series of data decrees for the DoD that will help the United States achieve the AI superiority it needs.
“We will ensure that DoD data is visible, accessible, understandable, linked, trustworthy, interoperable, and secure. To do so, I have directed key initial steps to ensure the Department treats data as a strategic asset,” she said, adding these steps set DoD on a solid foundation — both ethically and organizationally.
“Today, I am proud to announce the DoD AI and Data Acceleration initiative, or ADA initiative. Its goal is to rapidly advance data and AI-dependent concepts, like joint all-domain command and control, to the ADA initiative [to] generate foundational capabilities through a series of implementation experiments or exercises, each one purposefully building understanding through successive and incremental learning.”