Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAO) - Dem/Val Activities

The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAO) program, under the Office of the Secretary of Defense, focuses on enhancing the Department's capabilities in data, artificial intelligence (AI), and digital solutions. The program's objectives align with the National Defense Strategy and involve leading strategy development for data and AI, breaking down barriers to adoption within institutional processes, and creating enabling digital infrastructure. The CDAO is tasked with scaling proven digital solutions for joint use cases and providing rapid digital services in response to crises. Key initiatives include expanding the enterprise data repository, establishing a responsible AI ecosystem, and executing the AI and Data Accelerator initiative.

The AI/ML Scaffolding project concentrates on developing infrastructure, tools, and best practices to accelerate AI/ML adoption within the Department of Defense. This includes creating frameworks for AI testing and evaluation, providing enterprise services for AI/ML development through Alpha-1, and establishing a reference architecture model known as DREAM. The project also supports efforts to enable rapid development and deployment of AI capabilities across warfighting domains.

Digital Talent Management is another critical component of the CDAO's mission, aimed at leading and supporting the Department's data, analytics, and AI workforce. This involves analyzing workforce trends, creating learning pathways for digital practitioners, establishing a community of practice with resources, and fostering partnerships to cultivate future digital warfighters. The program seeks to empower the Defense Digital Workforce by providing education on data and AI to senior leaders and all DoD personnel.

Foundational Enablers are essential projects that support CDAO’s mission by delivering capabilities such as the Advana Platform for enterprise data management and analytics. This platform provides continuous operations across various environments and supports a growing user community. Additionally, SUNet Enterprise offers a secure platform for AI development and collaboration with non-traditional partners. The Defense Digital Services team provides rapid prototyping, cybersecurity solutions via bug bounties, and crisis response services to meet urgent needs.

Efforts to improve data quality focus on setting conditions for quality data across the Department by managing logistics and personnel data products. These efforts aim to create quality data at scale through enterprise services that connect platforms and practitioners. The project includes implementing automated data quality assessment capabilities within the Advana platform to support decision-making using authoritative data sources connected to various applications and dashboards.