Let me just go ahead and upset everyone, everywhere, all at once…
A RIDICULOUS war rages in online communities across social media over DoD GenAI software development. The gnashing of teeth across Internet enclaves of DoD members and defense contractors yesterday seemed to reach a new fever pitch. With more folks publicizing internally developed DoD projects like NIPRGPT, and the inevitable drumbeat of defense contractor backlash for non-commercial development was quite loud. It’s all a bit much at this point, so I think it’s important to level set some expectations for folks who either forgot or haven’t learned yet from experience.
First and foremost, the DoD is a collection of outstanding individuals with broad cross-functional talents, backed by the largest military budget on the face of this planet. The DoD has for decades bred a culture of invention and innovation in many forms, and the multiple DoD research labs lead the way under that banner of RDT&E. It is the MISSION of those labs, and all DoD personnel, to do the most with what they have and are given. If there’s some combination of available tools, resources, and supplies, there is a group of folks inside the wire who are getting after it. That’s the kind of military we as the United States populace want and deserve.
Second and just as critical, the defense industrial base is filled with literally the top talent in virtually every field of technology. For just an amount of money anything can be achieved. Want to harness the power of the atom, we got you. Want to go to the moon, we got you. Want to make objects invisible to radar, we got you. The roll of the defense sector is to build the big things the DoD can’t build for itself. The cost is not cheap, but the DoD has always paid the big bills to get the big things.
Know your role. If you are inside the wire, your job is to do the most with what you have. If you aren’t trying, we aren’t winning. If you are outside the wire trying to support us, your role is to build the things we can’t. So let me clearly state the obvious. If you and/or your team are just using a bunch of open source tools to build some widget that literally anyone one else with decent talent could put together…stop…at least stop trying to sell it to the DoD. The DoD has its own people for that. Please instead work on hard problems, new technology, or cutting edge capabilities. The DoD needs new tech to win wars, not companies whining over not being picked for imaginary funding of free prototypes.
