Acquisition chief Ellen Lord wants a radically new way of buying software, but appropriators have to approve.

“He said you’ve got tremendous people, you prototype pretty effectively, and you’re absolutely terrible — he had some more colorful words than that — for machine learning,” Gen. Thomas said. “It gave me a spark … and turned me into a zealot.”

“I think Russia and China are in a better position than we are at the moment on Artificial Intelligence,” Sen. Sen. James Inhofe said. I asked if he would press hard for more money. Answer: “To me, there are other things that need to be done first.”

WASHINGTON: China is besting the United States in key military technologies like hypersonic missiles and electronic warfare, Gen. Paul Selva, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs said today. We can still catch up, he predicted. What about Artificial Intelligence? That’s too close to call, said former deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work, so we’d better get a move on. Both men… Keep reading →

Pentagon brass are taking a look at what chaff can be cut in order to push along weapons systems like lasers and hypersonics. And they have some powerful Capitol Hill allies.

WASHINGTON: When former Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work heard the head of Google’s parent company, Eric Schmidt, say this morning that America needs a national strategy for developing Artificial Intelligence, one image sprang to his mind’s eye. “The image that popped into my mind was of Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe in the UN and… Keep reading →

SILICON VALLEY: Defense Secretary Ash Carter changed the leadership today of his flagship office trying to improve relations with entrepreneurs and major companies here. At the same time, Carter reorganized the Defense Innovation Unit (Experimental) — DIU(X) — to link it directly to his office, largely bypassing the traditional Pentagon acquisition system. In a prepared statement… Keep reading →

“When reached by cell phone the Taliban claimed credit,” said Google Chairman Eric Schmidt referring to Malala Yousufzai, the young woman shot and critically-injured for protesting against the Taliban. “We know their phone number? Hmm. Why don’t we know where they are?”