Department of Defense (DoD) software acquisition has long been a complex and document-heavy process. Historically, many software acquisition activities, such as generating Requests for Information \(RFIs), summarizing government regulations, identifying relevant commercial standards, and drafting project status updates, have required considerable human-intensive effort. However, the advent of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including large language models (LLMs), offers a promising opportunity to accelerate and streamline certain aspects of the software acquisition process. Software acquisition is one of many complex mission-critical domains that may benefit from applying generative AI to augment and/or accelerate human efforts. This blog post is the first in a series dedicated to exploring how generative AI, particularly LLMs like ChatGPT-4, can enhance software acquisition activities. Below, we present 10 benefits and 10 challenges of applying LLMs to the software acquisition process and suggest specific use cases where generative AI can provide value. Our focus is on providing timely information to software acquisition professionals, including defense software developers, program managers, systems engineers, cybersecurity analysts, and other key stakeholders, who operate within challenging constraints and prioritize security and accuracy.
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