DOD artificial intelligence center to take on cyber defense

The Defense Department's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center has its eye on autonomous cyber defenses. Mark Beall, JAIC's chief of strategic engagement and policy, said cyber defense is one of the JAIC's top project areas to solve due to robust acquisition and partnership interest and a "tremendous amount of data".

"It's an area that's a very manual process today," he said at ACT-IAC's Emerging Technology Forum June 5. "Those three things that come together through that come together actually lend itself to a more clear path forward," he said.

Beall anticipates AI to be used to help detect anomalous activities on DOD networks, account misuse, and network mapping, which will help operators understand the guts and edges of a network. "the in- and out-roads of a network."

One of the JAIC's core functions is to facilitate the development of a "common foundation" across the department, military services, and agencies. Beall said the common foundation will become increasingly important as the organization expands and he envisions it as a one-stop app store-like capability.

A version of this story first appeared in FCW, a sibling publication of Defense Systems.