Air Force releases new tool to track development, spending on AI efforts

The Department of the Air Force’s Chief Information Office has launched a new platform that aims to enhance transparency across the various artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities it has under development.

The online tool, dubbed CLARA, is designed to increase visibility and overall understanding of the department’s AI-related initiatives by serving as a centralized repository that provides information, progress and potential collaboration opportunities on projects, the DAF CIO noted Monday in a post on LinkedIn. The goal is to ensure stakeholders across the department stay informed and aligned in regards to these types of technologies.

“Every warfighter deserves clarity on the tools and capabilities at their disposal,” Acting DAF Chief Data and AI Officer Chandra Donelson said in a statement. “Transparent access to our resources ensures everyone is more equipped and ready to excel in any mission.”

Much like the rest of the Pentagon, the Department of the Air Force has been exploring how to leverage advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities for the Air and Space Forces. The DAF has been experimenting with new technologies and launched pilot efforts focusing on how AI can assist both services — ranging from day-to-day tasks to tactical operations.

With a number of programs underway, CLARA will be used to monitor progress, spending and potential duplicative initiatives, DAF CIO Venice Goodwine said Monday during a keynote speech at the annual Department of the Air Force Information Technology and Cyberpower conference.

“One of the things Congress has levied upon us is we must be able to have an AI inventory so we can report how much money we’re spending on AI,” Goodwine said. “But importantly, how are we tracking the time back on mission for our airmen and guardians? CLARA is a way in which we’re going to do that.”

In April, officials set up a DAF AI Launch Point to act as a “one-stop shop” for all of the department’s emerging artificial intelligence capabilities, Goodwine said. The website includes information on policies, strategy, training and education, as well as the AI Exchange App Store where airmen and guardians can begin experimenting with AI-enabled technologies.

Among those new tools is NIPRGPT 1.0 — a generative AI chatbot hosted on the Non-classified Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPRNet). Released in June in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory, the experimental platform allows the DAF to test different large language models and learn how they can be used in real-world scenarios.

NIPRGPT 1.0 has enabled experimentation with some open-source large language models, such as Meta’s Llama family of LLMs and Mistral AI, Goodwine noted.

Under what is being called NIPRGPT 1.0+, the department is looking to incorporate a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) model to combine large language models with the department’s internal data.

“What we want to show you which model is best for which use case,” Goodwine said.

Along with NIPRGPT, the department’s AI Exchange platform also includes redForce AI — a DevOps platform that supports rapid artificial intelligence capability development for warfighters — and the Mission-Driven Autonomous Collaborative Heterogeneous Intelligent Network Architecture (MACHINA), which is part of the Space Force’s space domain awareness network architecture.