ECS, an American leader in advanced technology and engineering solutions, has been awarded an $83 million U.S. Army contract for an artificial intelligence platform.

The U.S Department of Defense has contracted ECS to create combined artificial intelligence (AI)-platform prototypes enhance, according to a recent service news release.

Managed by the U.S. Army Contracting Command, the new deal is a 3-year cost-plus-fixed-fee contract with an estimated completion date of March 26, 2023.

Artificial intelligence (AI) already surrounds us in our devices, cars and homes. We accumulate capabilities and take them for granted as their benefits accrue.

AI-based systems already permeate our daily lives. The list of the world’s biggest companies is dominated by corporations that are built on or rely heavily on AI, such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook. Amazon recently released Rekognition, a tool for image and video analysis that anyone can add to a software application. In fact, police are using the facial recognition software already.

AI systems provide predictive analysis to interpret human inputs, determine what we most likely want, and then provide us with highly relevant information.

AI is no longer a technology reserved for a handful of multimillion-dollar fighter jets. Advances in hardware technology provide cheaper, smaller, more powerful processors that can be integrated affordably into individual Soldier equipment and fielded by the hundreds of thousands. These advances in hardware are what enable the “internet of things,” and what will become the internet of battlefield things.

As to ECS, this company delivers advanced solutions in cloud, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), application and IT modernization, science, and engineering. The company solves critical, complex challenges for customers across the U.S. public sector, defense, intelligence, and commercial industries.