The US Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Agency (CDAO) is handing out millions of dollars to leading AI companies to develop military applications. Each of these “awards” is worth up to $200 million, with humanity, Google, Openai and Xai on the receiver side.
The agency points out that the money will be used to “develop agent AI workflows across various mission areas.” In other words, this is primarily for military use. According to a press release, the move will “expand” the Pentagon's use of AI to “measure important national security needs.”
“The adoption of AI is changing the department's ability to support fighter jets and maintain a strategic advantage over the enemy,” said Dr. Doug Matty, Digital Director and AI Officer. He went on to say that this will “accelerate the use of advanced AI” in “Warfighting Domain.” As part of this effort, CDAO will provide access to the latest generation AI models for “combatant commanders, the Secretary of Defense Office and joint staff.”
For beginners, CDAO is a department of the Department of Defense created in 2022. The mission described is to accelerate the department's “conference room-to-battle analysis, adoption of artificial intelligence.”
It is worth noting that Xai is one of the largest companies in the government. This news comes on the same day the company began offering it. It's less than a week since Grok has completely off the rails and calls itself “Mechahitler.”
Additionally, the relationship between Xai CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump is an attractive development. Trump is threatening to separate mask businesses from government subsidies, but even when the threat is given today's announcement, the threat appears to be too much.
