The Department of Defense has tapped Craig Martell, formerly the head of machine learning for Lyft, to be the chief digital and artificial intelligence officer.
Martell, whose new position was announced by the department in a statement on Monday, will now lead the department’s strategies for artificial intelligence.
The Pentagon’s readout said Martell “brings extensive industry experience and expertise in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning” and that he will be “responsible for accelerating the adoption of data, analytics, digital solutions, and AI functions to generate decision advantage from the boardroom to the battlefield.”
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“Advances in AI and machine learning are critical to delivering the capabilities we need to address key challenges both today and into the future,” said Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. “With Craig’s appointment, we hope to see the department increase the speed at which we develop and field advances in AI, data analytics, and machine-learning technology. He brings cutting-edge industry experience to apply to our unique mission set.”
He does not have Pentagon experience, though he was a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School for over a decade studying AI. Martell also worked as the head of AI at Dropbox and LinkedIn.
“I think they really need someone from industry who knows how to bring real AI and analytical value at scale and speed,” Martell told Breaking Defense in an interview ahead of the public announcement. “One of the things that industry does well is, in a very agile way, turn on a dime and say, well, that’s not working, let’s try this and that’s not working, let’s try this. And you develop that muscle over time in industry and I think that’s something DoD really needs.”
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“On the other hand, coming from industry has a downside that I don’t know my ways around the Pentagon yet and I don’t know what levers to pull … So I’m also excited to be partnered up with folks who are really good at that as well,” he added.
