Air Force unveils artificial intelligence strategy

Air Force officials said the recent release of the branch’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy emphasizes the importance of artificial intelligence capabilities to 21st-century missions.

“The Air Force is charged to provide the nation with Air and Space Superiority, Global Strike, Rapid Global Mobility, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and Command Control,” Matthew Donovan, acting secretary of the Air Force, and Air Force Chief of Staff General David Goldfein said in the dual-signed annex. “Al is a capability that will underpin our ability to compete, deter, and win across all five of these diverse missions. It is crucial to fielding tomorrow’s Air Force faster and smarter, executing multi-domain operations in the high-end fight, confronting threats below the level of open conflict, and partnering with our allies around the globe.”

The effort provides definition, context, and purpose for artificial intelligence in the Air Force and is the annex to the Department of Defense Artificial Intelligence Strategy.

“In this return to great power competition, the United States Air Force will harness and wield the most representative forms of AI across all mission-sets, to better enable outcomes with greater speed and accuracy, while optimizing the abilities of each and every Airman,” Donovan and Goldfein wrote. “We do this to best protect and defend our nation and its vital interests while always remaining accountable to the American public.”