The US War Department is expanding access to generative artificial intelligence across the department, with around 1.7 million users currently using AI tools, officials said during GenAI.mil Excite Day at the Pentagon.
Deya Banisakher, acting director for Frontier AI at the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) and programme manager for GenAI.mil, said personnel with a common access card can access Google’s Gemini, Starshield AI’s Grok for Government and OpenAI’s ChatGPT Mil.
The department is also working with industry partners to deploy the latest American AI models and platforms, with the aim of bringing capabilities closer to commercial AI releases.
“We've recently gotten closer and closer to parity with commercial models and platforms, where we started releasing models on the same day as public releases,” Banisakher said.
According to Banisakher, AI is being used across a range of functions, including research, information summarisation, data extraction, coding, graphic design, operations research, acquisition and finance, as well as by warfighters.
One example comes from the US Navy, where a software modernisation project that could have taken two to three years and cost more than $10 million was reportedly completed in 30 days by three Navy developers using GenAI.mil.
The department is seeking to expand AI adoption by integrating AI tools into existing workflows and making capabilities available across different classification levels. The initiative is intended to provide personnel with access to AI platforms that can support both administrative functions and operational requirements.
The expansion reflects the US defence establishment’s broader effort to integrate generative AI into military and government workflows while accelerating the development and deployment of AI-enabled capabilities.
