Artificial Intelligence in National Security: Acquisition and Integration

<p dir="ltr">As defense and national security organizations consider integrating AI into their operations, many acquisition teams are unsure of where to start. In June, the SEI hosted an AI Acquisition workshop. Invited participants from government, academia, and industry described both the promise and the confusion surrounding AI acquisition, including how to choose the right tools to meet their mission needs. This blog post details practitioner insights from the workshop, including challenges in differentiating AI systems, guidance on when to use AI, and matching AI tools to mission needs. This workshop was part of the SEI’s year-long National AI Engineering Study to identify progress and challenges in the discipline of AI Engineering. As the U.S. Department of Defense moves to gain advantage from AI systems, AI Engineering is an essential discipline for enabling the acquisition, development, deployment, and maintenance of those systems. The National AI Engineering Study will collect and clarify the highest-impact approaches to AI Engineering to date and will prioritize the most pressing challenges for the near future. In this spirit, the workshop highlighted what acquirers are learning and the challenges they still face.</p>