Pentagon's New AI Chief Vows to Crack 'Bureaucratic Inertia' on Tech Advances

The Pentagon's new head of artificial intelligence wants to speed up technological modernization after an onslaught of what he calls "valid" criticism from recently departed senior leaders who expressed frustration at slow progress. From a report: Craig Martell, who was previously head of machine learning at Lyft and Dropbox and led AI initiatives at LinkedIn, told Bloomberg News in his first interview since starting his job as the Pentagon's chief digital and artificial intelligence officer that he wanted to make progress despite the department's labyrinthine "bureaucratic inertia." Martell's arrival is a boost for the Pentagon, which is seeking to attract expert talent from the private sector. Martell, who said his first day at the Pentagon on Monday was "overwhelming," added he had taken a "not trivial" pay cut to do the job. "It's not my goal to come in here and change the entire culture of the DoD. It's my goal to demonstrate that with the right cultural changes, we can have really big impact," he said, adding that the opinions of senior leaders who had left were "mostly correct."

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