The evolving nature of the Army’s approach to artificial intelligence

Colonel Hosey, back over to you. Talk to me about the changes for the Army's approach to artificial intelligence and what have those changes looked like in even just the last few years. I'd have to imagine those of us on the outside, we are faced with the reality. We're seemingly every day. There is a new large language model, a new flashy offering of generative AI. I can only imagine what this has looked like from your perspective, General Hosey. What have the last few years looked like

so for the last few years we've actually incorporated lots of data lessons learned

and data courses for leadership level at the executive level as well as data courses for a lot

of the mid-level from like major lieutenant colonel to understand that a lot of these sensors everything

that's coming under the battlefield are basically going to flood to the commanders and staff with

enormous amounts of information so we are actually fielding or the army is looking at fielding and

And I know here at the Cyber Center of Excellence and for the cyber school itself

we are actually incorporating AI and machine learning into the course of instruction to allow

at least for cyberspace effects and cognitive EW effects, to incorporate those lessons so that the soldiers

that'll be more operational relevant as they get into the battlefield, understanding how to utilize those capabilities

within the appropriate scope that will be established through policy. Colonel Stanley, what does the effort look like

to go forth and try and attract top tech talent, specifically, let's say young millennials

So we have a lot of those efforts right now, and they're all kind of centered around creating

career fields for them where there's opportunities to grow and expand and do new, larger, more

interesting projects, kind of pulling on the thread that Pat was talking about with that

mission-oriented focus. We attract folks because we have really interesting, gnarly problem sets

We have some of the most interesting and impactful problem sets that you could find

anywhere in the DOD in the government in the Army specifically because you know we going to be very proud of some of the work we do But if we can make those opportunities available if we show them ways that they can serve and not only get but utilize these skills

that we're bringing on. So we are creating different career fields, different career opportunities

a lot of broadening opportunities. We have a lot of partnerships with universities to get people not just understanding the theory

of artificial intelligence, but practicing. And we've created a lot of literacy programs

that are now kind of finding their way out and about to all of our branches

not just our technical branches, because our business process owners, effectively, who are operators

need to understand how to use and employ this talent when they get it. Otherwise, you're going

to have a super smart person sitting in the corner making PowerPoint slides. They're going to leave

because they're not going to get that mission focus. So what we're doing to attract is showing

off the jobs, the projects, the impact that you're able to make in this space, making it accessible

getting our folks out to different venues, to STEM events, to conferences, demonstrating what is within the realm of possible for a Army, military or civilian career in these fields

And, you know, you show people the awesome problem sets and people show up. Colonel Salen, I got to say the phrase gnarly problem sets, one of the cooler phrases that I've heard used here today in our program

And I very much appreciate that. Colonel, let me stay with you, Colonel Salen. any unconventional talent strategy that you have found work particularly well that might be a

surprise so far when it comes to recruitment? So we've tried a number of different things to

reach people. A lot of it is just kind of figuring out where people are having the conversations

And we will go and jump on all kinds of different social media conversations. We'll find hackathons

We will get people in working and seeing where different programs that people have uploaded on

get up and forked and what kind of stuff they're doing with them. It really is just kind of getting where people are having the conversations A lot of it too is we have a lot of people who do really really advanced technology work both in the active army and in the reserves that a lot of people just aren aware of So we make opportunities to get them together talking working on different problems

We hold internal hackathons just to kind of make people aware that they might have these skills

They're not alone in the world. There are opportunities and create these little communities of practice that become very powerful when they start collaborating on projects together

I do have a new viewer question that just came across the wire, so I'm going to read it out

and I will kick it to all three of you as panelists and anyone who feels comfortable answering. Please go ahead and do so

This comes from Bruce in San Diego. Shout out, Bruce. Thank you for the question

He says, to change the culture and thinking of the federal workforce to become more fluid to move in and out of the federal workforce

would not the entire retirement system need to change so that it is transportable

I don't know if anyone in particular has a particular response there, but I at least wanted to offer it up just in case

Possibly. Possibly. Okay, Mr. Tamburino, anything there? It's about the sort of transportable nature in and out of that federal workforce, I think largely in line with some of your commentary earlier

Right. So it's an idea, right? We want to make it permeable

We want to treat your career as chapters in a journey. we want you to we want you to become a citizen of government a citizen of academia and a citizen

of the private sector and now you're a citizen of three ecosystems and you understand how they work

you're a much better commodity you're a much higher valued asset so yeah i think if the government

wants to be innovative we're going to have to come up with innovative solutions that the things i've

How do you move back and forth? How do you take your retirement back and forth with you

I think it all solvable but we have to sit down and work out the nuances You have to agree with the first premise that you want to have this permeability because you want people to be able to come in at all levels and work on your hardest problem

And for government people to experience going to industry and academia and get some runtime in that environment and see how they operate and what are their complicated problems

So, yeah, that that would be in the details of the challenge we would need to solve

And I submit it's solvable. Colonel Hosey, what does a cyber ready warfighter look like in the year 2025

So there's a leader in technology, able to think about the gnarly problems that Colonel

Sailing was talking about and be able to find a solution in the collaboration with their

other teammates, right? Because it's not a one soldier can solve it all

It's usually a group effort, especially with the hard problems that we have in cyber

the desire for the mission readiness and mission status and getting after what the U.S. needs as far as like the DOD and the Army

Colonel Hose, I'm going to stay with you if I can for this next one. What would be one reality of the work that you operate in that you think would surprise most Americans

I think that with some of the what I would say from my perspective, the belief of the general populist or general private sector is that they think that the army teaches and informs and education instructs through a task based mentality or education system

I think that here in the cyber school and as far as like for cyberspace operations and electromagnetic warfare, we actually train to the theory and execution through theory

And then we tack on the actual hands-on equipment afterwards. So we have a thinking soldier that will understand and be able to revolutionize and evolutionize the TTPs that they utilize for both cyberspace and the electromagnetic spectrum