Decisive Advantage is one of six force design elements and will be enabled by AI as outlined in the Chief of Naval Operations NAVPLAN 2022. These AI Summits are held to strengthen the connections between Navy AI enablers, practitioners and users, as well as grow the Navy AI Community into a platform for accelerated AI deployment in support of the Navy’s highest priorities.
“We focused the attendees’ time on planning Naval AI training and education, operational AI/machine learning (ML) deployment pipelines, and AI Fusion, a concept for the operational deployment of AI in service of distributed maritime operations and the hybrid fleet,” a Vaughn said. “The NPS was instrumental as a key link and helped us develop a blueprint for a Naval AI organization and governance structure.”
US Marine Corps Jack Long, PhD, Marine Reservist at the Office of Naval Research and Deputy Chief of Naval AI, briefed summit attendees on the current state of AI in the Navy and opened the discussion on future trends to AI Fleet influence shaping. development and deployment. Partners from the US Army, US Marine Corps, US Coast Guard, Defense Intelligence Agency, Joint Staff and Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO) joined the Navy and its AI Task Forces at the summit.
AI is a tool that becomes more applicable as the world becomes more wired, more data is generated, and as advanced processing power becomes more prevalent.
“We think AI is widely applicable to warfare, so we want to make sure that the Naval services and the DoD in general are able to effectively take advantage of this emerging and disruptive tool. It’s important that we be ready to use it to our advantage, whether in warfare or corporate functions, and be ready to use it against us,” Long said.
With discussions taking place at various levels of classification, a significant portion of the summit focused on the skills the Navy and Marine Corps will need. channel this ability. Past innovations such as submarines and aviation have reshaped naval warfare, and each invention requires new doctrine, equipment and personnel to support it. As the required skills become more specialized, those personnel need new careers to allow them to become masters of their craft.
The Navy must learn to operate at the speed of AI. As expertise becomes in-house, the Navy will need a workforce that can code, build models, and harness AI in a way similar to how Sailors once knew how to use a sextant. The implementation of AI would be part of a basic mariner. Alternatively, the Navy could rely on industry and contractors to bend AI to Navy purposes in much the same way that the service builds ships.
This summit started the conversation on what the services need to be about how they define their core competence and what they choose not to do.
“Right now, there’s a small cadre of people in the Navy who have given this a lot of thought,” Long said. “Before the CNO or the CMC agrees on strategic AI decisions, there needs to be a much wider group capture Ultimately this is a conversation about the future identity of the Services in the age of digital warfare.”
During the week-long summit, attendees connected, received informational briefings, and participated in several hands-on workshops on topics such as Navy AI training and education, practical AI/ML deployment architecture and operational employment AI at the edge of naval operations.
Some of these conversations will stimulate projects and partnerships that will be achieved through the Naval Innovation Exchange (NIX) led by Dr. Mathias Kolsch at NPS. Kolsch is working to connect the summit, courses and research.
“I’m figuring out the ideal workforce composition for AI/ML-related projects, and the AI Summit tells me how to do that,” Kolsch explained. “I meet these people and talk to them. I see where there are successful projects and I start asking questions. How many are listed here for this? What do they know? Can they code? … What skills are required for this project? So, this summit informs the NIX.”
Collaborative planning has already begun for the next Naval AI Summit in March 2023, and Kolsch plans to offer a version of the popular “AI for Leadership” course specifically designed to support active general officers, flag officers , and with Senior Civilians of the Executive Service during the same. a week.
The NPS is currently the center of gravity for advanced AI training and education within the Navy’s Education Enterprise. If the NCAIO and Long go their way, that role will soon grow. At the core of research and operational experience, the NPS is an ideal center for advanced education and AI application.
“The vision for accelerated Navy AI training and education, affirmed by NPS, closely parallels the role of Top Gun for Naval Aviators. NPS as a center for advanced AI training in the same way that pilots go to flight school and then later in their career they go back to advanced training to keep up to date and learn how to use the craft at the pace of industry and competitors, ” Long said. . “That’s the central role we see NPS playing in the coming years – the central hub for disseminating AI knowledge across the Navy and Marine Corps.”
Since the program’s inception, the AI Summit continues to grow and develop. What began as an ambitious endeavor of less than a dozen practitioners has grown by orders of magnitude. And it will certainly increase in number as the Navy and Marine Corps further embrace the widespread application of AI, and the need to evolve and innovate at high speed and at scale. NPS will continue to play a leading role in AI education, research and innovation and the next AI Summit is scheduled for March 2023.
