Hello, and welcome to Protocol Enterprise! Today: why enterprise AI companies are taking a closer look at military contracts, cloud infrastructure companies need to think carefully about their next steps in Russia, and where enterprise tech leaders took their talents in the past week.
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AI meets DoD
Enterprise tech companies often post customer logos on their websites as signals of their sales prowess, like service medals on a military uniform. But when AI tech vendors spotlight their work with defense industry customers, it’s not always considered a badge of honor.
As talk of war and national security intensifies in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. Department of Defense is on a mission to integrate data analytics and AI into every facet of its operations, including logistics and missile technology development. While some tech companies like C3.ai see providing AI software to the U.S. military as a way to help protect democratic values — and profit — to others, it just screams killer robots.
- When asked last week during its Q3 2022 earnings call about how the company could assist the DoD and its allies in Ukraine, C3.ai CEO Thomas Siebel did not hesitate to highlight the opportunities for enterprise AI software companies.
- “We are very actively engaged with the Department of the Army, the Department of the Air Force and with some of the intelligence agencies in some very large projects,” Siebel said.
- Siebel pointed to modifications made in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act that streamline procurement of tech from commercial AI companies by the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, which leads integration of data- and AI-related work at the DoD.
- “This change in federal procurement policy is very significant, basically mandating the Secretary of Defense put in procedures in place to ensure that commercial software is considered first,” Siebel said, referring to Defense Department work as “a big opportunity.”
C3.ai is just one of many tech companies joining the ranks of Pentagon AI suppliers.
- Announced in February, up to $249 million of Joint Artificial Intelligence Center funds for AI testing and evaluation are now readily available to several AI tech providers including cloud AI companies DataRobot, Figure Eight Federal, Scale AI, Veritone, computer vision companies CrowdAI and Image Matters, and Arthur, which helps monitor AI models to avoid bias and inaccuracy.
- “One of the ways to avoid the valley of death and one of the ways to get this technology into the warfighters’ hands is to be able to at least readily connect those vendors, those industry partners that have the technology, to the warfighter,” said Jane Pinelis, then-JAIC head of Test and Evaluation, at a 2021 event regarding a JAIC request for proposals to AI vendors.
- Pinelis noted that test and evaluation of AI used by the DoD was traditionally thought of as “a hoop that somebody has to jump through before deployment.”
- But she said attitudes within the DoD are shifting toward accepting the need to test and evaluate AI, and that by working with tech partners, the DoD can assess compliance with the ethical AI principles it established in 2020.
When AI tech suppliers tout their military work, “I’m pretty darn sure those companies think it’s good for business,” said
