AI and the Future of Warfare with US Under Secretary of War Emil Michael

The U.S. Department of War (DoW) is undergoing a significant transformation to maintain its technological edge against near-peer adversaries, a necessity driven by the largest military buildup in world history by China. This requires a new level of investment and a different way of thinking than the last two decades of counter-insurgency.

A New Era of Urgency and Innovation

As the Under Secretary for Research and Engineering, Emil Michael’s role is to inject a sense of urgency and a “fixer-builder” mentality, akin to a Silicon Valley startup, into the DoW. His responsibilities have been unified to accelerate technological adoption, overseeing key organizations:

• DARPA: The nation’s hub for advanced research.
• Defense Innovation Unit (DIU): The bridge between the startup community and the defense industry, based in Mountain View.
• Chief AI Office: Responsible for deploying AI across the DoW’s three million employees.
• Strategic Capability Office: Focuses on modifying existing systems for strategic surprise.

Focusing on Critical Technology Priorities

To create focus and execute effectively, the DoW’s 14 critical technology areas were consolidated into six action-oriented priorities with engineering-style sprints behind them:

1. Applied AI: Adapting and applying commercially developed foundation models to DoW use cases, rather than building them from scratch.
2. Scaled Hypersonics: Moving beyond expensive, “exquisite” hypersonic missiles (Mach 5+) to produce them at scale and at a reasonable cost.
3. Scaled Directed Energy: Deploying high-powered microwaves and lasers at scale. This offers a cost-effective solution for countering threats like drone swarms, where a zap of energy is far cheaper than a multi-million dollar missile.
4. Autonomous Systems: Shifting towards autonomous drones, submarines, and boats as the “new front line,” reducing human casualties and increasing firepower. The goal is to see a significant budget allocation—potentially 20-30% in the next decade—towards these more cost-effective systems.
5. Space Technology.
6. Electronic Warfare.

The prioritization process involves identifying common needs and technological enablers that can be applied across all services (Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force) to achieve economies of scale.

The GenAI.mil Initiative: AI at Scale

A key achievement has been the rapid development and deployment of GenAI.mil, an internal generative AI platform. Recognizing that DoW networks couldn’t simply connect to public services like ChatGPT, a “tiger team” of former engineers from Databricks, Meta, and AWS was assembled.

In just 60 days, working closely with Google’s Gemini team, they architected and launched a secure platform. The key architectural challenge was ensuring no DoW data flows back into the public training pools of commercial models.

• Launch & Adoption: The platform launched to three million people and saw over one million unique users in its first 30 days.
• Models: It currently runs on a Gemini model, with plans to integrate Grok from xAI and others soon.
• Impact: GenAI.mil is set to fundamentally change how work is done within the DoW, from automating the creation of lengthy congressional reports to enhancing daily productivity.

Three Pillars of Applied AI

To drive adoption, the DoW is focusing on “pathfinder” projects across three broad categories:

1. Enterprise Use Cases: Improving efficiency and reducing drudgery in business operations, similar to any large corporation. This makes the DoW a more attractive place to work for top talent.
2. Intelligence: Leveraging AI to augment human analysts. AI can sift through vast amounts of intelligence from satellites and other sources to flag key items, and fuse different types of intelligence to give analysts a more complete picture.
3. Warfighting: Using AI for complex tasks like wargaming, strategic planning, and simulating different combat scenarios to improve decision-making.

Rebuilding the American Defense Industrial Base

There is a recognized need to revitalize the U.S. defense industrial base, which has consolidated from 50 prime contractors in the 1980s to about five today. The “Arsenal of Freedom” tour is a key initiative to signal to industry that the DoW is open for business and ready to support production.

The approach to procurement is changing:

• From Prescription to Problem-Solving: Instead of issuing 300-page requirement documents that favor incumbents, the DoW is now presenting problems and asking for innovative solutions. This opens the door for startups.
• No More Lawsuits: The goal is to create a “wide front door” so that new entrants don’t have to sue the DoW for their first contract, as companies like SpaceX, Anduril, and Palantir famously did.

Entrepreneurs are cautioned that selling to the government still requires demonstrating competence in scaled, flawless manufacturing, as lives are at stake.

Overcoming the “Valley of Death”

To help startups and innovators navigate the notorious funding gap between prototype and scaled production, several mechanisms are in place:

• Defense Innovation Unit (DIU): Utilizes a billion-dollar budget for rapid contracting to get startups off the ground.
• Office of Strategic Capital (OSC): Wields $200 billion in low-cost lending authority to help companies scale manufacturing for critical technologies. It has already executed fast deals in critical minerals to address supply chain vulnerabilities and reduce dependency on foreign adversaries.
• Flexible Budgeting: Reserving portions of the budget to make agile, in-year decisions, counteracting the slow congressional funding cycle.

• Tags:
• Generative AI
• Autonomous Systems
• National Security
• Defense Tech
• GenAI.mil
• Hypersonics