U.S. General Services Administration
GSA, JAIC Announce a Year of Achievements
WASHINGTON - The U.S. General Services Administration and the U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center today announced five achievements that have accelerated the JAIC’s operational maturity. The accomplishments listed below come from the one-year partnership with the Centers of Excellence (CoE), housed within GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS).
The five achievements:
- Designed agile acquisition for AI;
- Unified program management and infrastructure support;
- Enabled environments for Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML)/DevSecOps for the Joint Common Foundation;
- Implemented data management procedures; and
- Supported creation of the First Five Consortium.
The achievements align with the White House’s Executive Order on AI that seeks to apply AI solutions to the unique business challenges the government faces. It also supports the DoD AI strategy and the JAIC mission of transforming the U.S. military through AI.
“Our CoE partnership creates a broader forum for interagency cooperation in AI while providing agile acquisition and infrastructure solutions to deliver scalable AI-enabled capabilities for the warfighter,” said the JAIC Chief Technology Officer Nand Mulchandani.
“The CoE and the JAIC continue to showcase what’s possible in the federal space when agencies come together to accelerate modernization thinking and best practices,” said Acting FAS Deputy Commissioner and TTS Director Bob De Luca. “Our partnership with the JAIC demonstrates a great case for the impact that GSA teams can achieve.”
Agile Acquisition: The combined acquisition support of GSA’s Federal Systems Integration and Management Center (FEDSIM) and CoE for the JAIC Joint Warfighting Mission Initiative enabled the JAIC to contract a prime integrator that is assisting with the development of AI-enabled capabilities for operational decision-makers. In addition to the Joint Warfighting effort, the CoE assisted in creating modern acquisition strategies for decentralized, multiple award contracting models around AI-specific data readiness, test, and evaluation activities, which will serve as internal guides to success.
Program Management and Infrastructure Support: Through establishing program and product management best practices, the CoE is helping to modernize the JAIC’s technology landscape by driving out IT infrastructure cost inefficiencies, improving security, and positioning the partner for future improvements. Specific to the JAIC Joint Warfighting Mission Initiative, the CoE has supported 2 major milestones - the award of over $40m in task orders in 4 months, including the expedited award kickoff and onboarding, and establishment of the JAIC Award Fee Determination Board that ensures Agile methodologies and prioritization of AI tools and products throughout operations and development.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML)/DevSecOps for the Joint Common Foundation: The Joint Common Foundation (JCF) was established and will play a key role in accelerating and scaling AI solutions for the U.S. military. The enterprise cloud-based foundation is working towards delivering development, testing, and pre-production environments. These environments will allow AI developers to use the collaboration, tools, reusable assets, and data that military services and combatant commands need to build, refine, test, and field AI applications. And, to support AI/ML environments from “concept to product,” a robust AI Capability Maturity Model and AI Workforce Model have been developed.
Data Management: The partnership also includes support for creating a data governance framework, establishing data management procedures, and developing a JCF data asset catalog.
First Five Consortium: In addition, working closely with the White House, the integrated team supported establishing the First Five Consortium, dedicated to providing unified AI-enabled Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HADR) capabilities for America’s first responders. These advanced capabilities are estimated to be fully mission capable by next year.
The JAIC joined the CoE in partnership on September 25, 2019. As part of GSA’s Technology Transformation Services within the Federal Acquisition Service, the CoE initiative accelerates IT modernization at federal agencies by leveraging private sector innovation and government services while centralizing best practices and expertise for holistic transformation. TTS helps agencies make their services more accessible, efficient, and effective with modern applications, platforms, processes, personnel, and software solutions.
About GSA
The mission of the U.S. General Services Administration is to deliver value and savings in real estate, acquisition, technology, and other mission-support services across the government. One of GSA’s four strategic goals is to improve the way agencies buy, build, and use technology. To learn more about GSA, visit gsa.gov and join the conversation on social media at @USGSA @GSACoE and @GSAEmily.
About the JAIC
The mission of the JAIC is to accelerate the adoption and integration of AI in the Department of Defense to achieve mission impact at scale. The JAIC serves as the focal point for the execution of the DoD’s AI Strategy that supports the U.S. National Defense Strategy (2018). As the DoD center of excellence for AI, the JAIC continues to attract the best and brightest people from across government, commercial industry, and academia to carry out its vision to transform the U.S. military through AI. Follow the JAIC on Twitter @DoDJAIC and view the DoD’s AI mission initiatives at www.AI.mil.
###