A new sprint effort between the General Services Administration and the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) is underway to expand the use of artificial intelligence in both the civilian federal agencies and the Department of Defense, GSA announced Sept. 25.

According to the news release, the partnership will aid JAIC’s push to quickly deliver AI tools to the department and syncing AI-activities across the DoD to “expand Joint Force advantages.”

“We look forward to the opportunity to work alongside our partners at the GSA Centers of Excellence to explore mutually beneficial AI solutions to modernize our technical, programmatic and acquisition processes,” said Lt Gen. Jack Shanahan, director of the JAIC.

“This collaboration between agency partners is critical to realize the full potential that AI can bring to the U.S. government.”

The joint discovery sprint will assess strategy, acquisition and technological challenges and potential solutions, including AI development platforms. GSA is also planning to establish an AI Center of Excellence.

“The new GSA-DoD partnership reflects the ongoing success of the Center of Excellence initiative. In alignment with the administration’s strategy for ensuring American leadership in the industries of the future, the AI CoE program will build the capacity to deliver AI solutions throughout the federal government,” said Chris Liddell, White House deputy chief of staff for policy coordination.

The partnership is part of the GSA’s Centers of Excellence initiative, a program designed in 2017 to speed up IT modernization at federal agencies. The DoD is the fifth agency to partner with GSA, joining the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Office of Personnel Management and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

“Today’s announcement demonstrates the strength of the CoE initiative governmentwide," said GSA Administrator Emily Murphy.

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"We look forward to accelerating the development and fielding of AI-ready systems with the Department of Defense.”