Jane Edwards
Several industry experts shared their insights on a 47-page document that provides a roadmap on how the Department of Defense will advance the responsible use of artificial intelligence, FedScoop reported Wednesday.
The Responsible Artificial Intelligence Strategy and Implementation Pathway outlines proposed actions to promote responsible AI use across the department based on six foundational tenets: RAI governance; warfighter trust; AI product and acquisition lifecycle; requirements validation; responsible AI ecosystem; and AI workforce.
“Perhaps most importantly, the document provides additional structure and nomenclature that industry can utilize in collaboration activities, which will ultimately be required to achieve scale,” Steve Escaravage, executive vice president for AI at Booz Allen Hamilton, told the publication.
“I view it as industry’s responsibility to provide the department insights on the next layer of standards and practices to assist the department’s efforts,” added Escaravage.
Kim Crider, managing director at Deloitte and head of the consulting firm’s AI innovation for national security team, said she believes that AI governance should be defined through testing standards, ethical guidance, safety considerations, human systems integration and accountability checks and that DOD’s implementation pathway marks a key step in putting into practice responsible AI principles.
“The AI pathway released last week appears to offer robust focus and clarity on DOD’s proposed governance structure, oversight and accountability mechanisms,” Crider said.
“It will be interesting to see the DOD continue to explore and execute these six tenets as new questions concerning responsible AI implementation naturally arise,” she added.
David Spirk, former chief data officer at the Pentagon and previous Wash100 awardee, also commented on the lines of effort outlined under the pathway’s second tenet, which is warfighter trust.
“This is one of the most important steps in making sure that [the Office of the Secretary of Defense] is setting conditions to provide the decision advantage the department and its allies and partners need to outpace our competitors at the speed of the best available commercial compute, whether cloud-based or operating in a disadvantaged and/or disconnected comms environment,” said Spirk, who now serves as a special adviser at CalypsoAI.
