{"id":39339,"date":"2018-04-24T16:21:31","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T16:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/04\/24\/pentagon-ai-center-progressing-but-hypersonics-and-lasers-may-not-get-same-treatment\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:08:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:08:34","slug":"pentagon-ai-center-progressing-but-hypersonics-and-lasers-may-not-get-same-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2018\/04\/24\/pentagon-ai-center-progressing-but-hypersonics-and-lasers-may-not-get-same-treatment\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon AI center progressing, but hypersonics and lasers may not get same treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2015 The Pentagon\u2019s new hub for artificial intelligence<\/a> could be stood up within six months, according to Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the decision to go forward with an AI Center of Excellence does not mean that hypersonics<\/a> or directed energy<\/a>, two other high-priority tech developments for the department, will get the same treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shanahan, speaking at a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington on Tuesday, told reporters that his goal is to have the AI center stood up \u201cwithin\u201d six months, but indicated that management of that group will flow to either Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Michael Griffin or Dana Deasy, a former JPMorgan Chase executive who will join the department in May<\/a> as its top IT official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Griffin revealed the plan to create a physical AI center during testimony last week, but acknowledged it was still very much a work in progress as the department sorts through the current 592 projects that involve some form of AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m working right now with folks on my staff to answer questions like: \u2018Who should lead it, where should it be, what projects should it do, and most importantly how does such a center fit into the overall AI strategy for the department and the nation?\u2019 \u201d Griffin said April 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pentagon officials have been open that hypersonic and directed-energy weapons join AI as a holy trinity for new tech developments. But asked whether other centers of excellence need to be stood up for those technologies, Shanahan sounded ambivalent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With directed energy, \u201cit may not be that there\u2019s a center,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we may do is parse things out until someone\u2019s doing power supply, somebody\u2019s doing beam control. It\u2019s different aspects of the technology that we\u2019ll probably parse out, either to a service or one of the research labs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t