On December 5, 2024, the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) partnered with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) for an Industry Day event hosted at the DIU office in Mountain View, California. The event kicked off with a 45-minute fireside chat between DoD CDAO, Dr. Radha Plumb, and Director of DIU, Doug Beck, moderated by Dr. Joe Felter, Director of the Stanford Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation. The fireside chat was followed by a keynote on the Speed-to-Scale approach by Deputy CDAO for Mission Analytics, Garrett Berntsen that was streamed in real-time on YouTube Live. This was followed by a one-hour in-person industry roundtable for registered industry partners in the Bay Area.
The discussion focused on the ‘Speed-to-Scale' partnership between DIU and CDAO, where CDAO works to scale digital and AI solutions that have successfully completed prototypes with DIU. In the six-month period since DIU and CDAO
codified their partnership, CDAO has begun to scale solutions first prototyped with DIU, including:
- Translation of Foreign Language Materials: CDAO recently awarded a contract to California-based machine learning company LILT to scale its AI-powered translation platform. Originally part of a DIU prototype effort, LILT customized their platform to include domain-specific vocabularies relevant to the DoD when translating large volumes of foreign language technical documentation related to critical technologies. The CDAO contract scales LILT’s solution to hundreds of users across the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
- Creating an Agile Talent Marketplace: DIU launched a working prototype of GigEagle, a real-time talent matching platform with over 4,000 active users, in April 2024. GigEagle is the Department’s first Joint talent marketplace platform that leverages machine learning to rapidly connect skilled personnel with mission-critical roles. This capability recently transitioned from DIU to a $5M production contract funded by CDAO to scale across the defense enterprise with additional support from DICE members like AFWERX.
Mr. Bernsten also provided an overview of how this Speed-to-Scale approach and partnership, in alignment with the
Open DAGIR principles, will drastically expedite our ability to deliver modern software at scale from the boardroom to the battlefield. He outlined the four-step Speed-to-Scale approach that CDAO takes to test and scale capabilities
in his presentation.
The roundtable exchange with industry included valuable perspectives on acquisition successes and barriers and the importance of feedback and collaboration from the commercial technology sector to streamline pipelines to scale. Leaders recognized the importance of early and recurring revenue to nontraditional companies, demand for more transparent and efficient processes, and the importance of early adoption of new technologies as crucial to addressing evolving operational needs.
CDAO and DIU collaboration is continuing in the new year, including with the newly launched
AI Rapid Capabilities Cell (AI RCC), which is charged with accelerating the adoption and delivery of frontier and advanced AI capabilities for DoD.
Missed the virtual panel and keynote? Watch the recording here:
DIU & CDAO Fireside Chat: Speed to Scale | December 5, 2024
View CDAO's Speed-to-Scale presentation here:
Speed-To-Scale Presentation
Event Images