AI is a technology that makes sense of data, Streilein explained before diving into the history of the ebbs and flows in the popularity of today’s common term since it was first coined in 1956. “It’s interesting that we’re riding this wave of capability.”
As much as everyone is “excited about AI,” he continued, adversarial nations are perhaps even further interested and more aggressive in approaching the technology to dominate the world.
Though AI capabilities show promise, they remain novel. Derived from generative AI, large language models, for example, entered the scene about a year ago. “They are incredibly impressive at creating human language. They’re trained on human language. They know how to statistically put sentences together … but they’re not always correct, and that is the part that’s dangerous,” Streilein said.
With Task Force Lima, an effort created to accept requests for large language model use cases, the goal is to accelerate promising generative AI initiatives. “Our first use cases are large language models because they are most relevant today,” he explained.
The goal with this initiative, the speaker noted, is not to stop progress but rather advance it through appropriate evaluation.
“We want to drive education and bring everybody up to speed on what these actually are,” Streilein continued. “We want to dispel the hype and turn people into critical evaluators of this capability.”
The DoD is currently soliciting models for large language models and will be holding a symposium in February focused on data analytics, AI and the maturity model.
As the DoD takes steps towards progression and modernization, agility is at the core of any new implementation. The current innovative landscape is in a constant shift, requiring continuous deployment and monitoring of technology updates.
Additionally, it’s important to practice ethical usage of AI. “Make sure it’s reliable, it’s equitable, it’s governable, it’s responsible and traceable,” Streilein listed.
