The Pentagon is partnering with Google on an artificial intelligence initiative to create a generative “‘AI-first’ workforce,” the Department of War announced Tuesday.
The War Department has tapped Google’s Gemini for Government as the first of several incoming platforms on its new GenAI.mil generative artificial intelligence model. The department will train all of its employees on how to use the model at no cost.
“Today we are unleashing GenAI.mil. This platform puts the world’s most powerful, frontier, AI models, starting with Google Gemini, directly into the hands of every American warrior. At the click of a button, AI models on GenAI can be utilized to conduct deep research, format documents and even analyze video or imagery at unprecedented speed,” War Secretary Pete Hegseth said.
“This past July, President Donald Trump instituted a mandate to achieve an unprecedented level of AI technological superiority,” the DOW said in a press release. “The War Department is delivering on this mandate.”
Hegseth marketed GenAI.mil as a “fighting force” for the department, saying AI models “present boundless opportunities to increase efficiency” within the department. Google Cloud also promoted the War Department’s bet on the AI initiative as one that would increase productivity.
“Through this deployment of Google Cloud’s ‘Gemini for Government’ offering, more than 3 million civilian and military personnel will be able to access the same advanced AI that businesses use every day to drive administrative efficiency and greater business productivity. This is a significant step in accelerating AI adoption across the public sector – all hosted within Google’s secure and reliable systems,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement.
Google will use its Gemini model to help the Pentagon streamline its unclassified workflows, accelerate innovation, and securely process sensitive data, the company said in its release.
Hegseth gave a shout-out to Undersecretary of War for Research and Engineering Emil Michel, saying, with GenAI.mil, the department is building on his efforts “to aggressively field the world’s best technology to make our fighting force more lethal than ever before.”
“There is no prize for second place in the global race for AI dominance,” Michel said in a statement. “We are moving rapidly to deploy powerful AI capabilities like Gemini for Government directly to our workforce. AI is America’s next Manifest Destiny, and we’re ensuring that we dominate this new frontier.”
Michel, who has been at the forefront of the Pentagon’s technological innovation under the Trump administration, told reporters Monday at a Defense Writers Group event that people are generally more excited about and familiar with AI models.
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“What’s happened in the years since ChatGPT first launched is you’ve had three other competitors enter the market. Now, you have four giant companies: Anthropic, xAI, OpenAI, and Google, right? So, you have four investing hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure, in research and development, data centers, power cooling chips, you name it. So, the explosion of capabilities has been enormous, and we’re just catching up to that,” Michel said.
The Trump administration has made several private-public sector deals to secure AI models for its agencies at discounted rates. The deals come as the administration pushes to launch the United States further ahead of China in the so-called artificial intelligence race.
Mike Brest contributed to this report.
