Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org<\/p>\n
Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David R. Wolfe said May 8 that the service is working on a new training program to ensure that every Airman is educated to use AI in their everyday job.<\/p>\n
Just weeks after the service released its artificial intelligence strategy<\/a>, Wolfe said on a Military Officers Association of America webinar that the service must create a level of \u201cAI literacy\u201d throughout the force to take advantage of the new technology.\t\t<\/p>\n \u201cWe have got an opportunity here with AI that we are going all in on,\u201d Wolfe said. \u201cWe are getting ready to roll out what I know will be some meaningful training for our folks to get everybody to a baseline of AI literacy so we can use it for all of its intended purposes, and for things that we haven\u2019t really figured out yet that it can do.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not yet clear when the service intends to start this new AI training effort for Airmen.<\/p>\n Wolfe, who equated the technological leap of AI to the creation of desktop computers and email addresses, is confident it will make the Air Force more efficient and effective.<\/p>\n Wolfe\u2019s comments also follow the service\u2019s April 28 announcement<\/a> that it plans to \u201caggressively recruit, train, and retain top-tier artificial intelligence professionals\u201d to operationalize AI throughout the force. To attract new talent, the service plans to streamline its hiring and accessions processes, \u201cremove bottlenecks, and expedite hiring for essential AI positions,\u201d the announcement states.<\/p>\n The Air Force said it plans to offer competitive financial incentives to attract top AI professionals, but the service has not announced what those incentives might be worth.\t\t<\/p>\n \u201cWe plan to consider special hiring and compensation authorities, such as those used for the acquisition workforce,\u201d Susan Davenport, chief data and artificial intelligence officer for the Air Force, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. \u201cThe goal is to compete with the private sector where AI professionals may seek employment, as we also want a workforce with top AI skills.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of the plan involves developing training courses to ensure that the Air Force grows a \u201cuniversally informed and responsibly engaged workforce prepared for an AI-integrated future,\u201d according to the announcement.<\/p>\n Following on the Pentagon priorities for AI technology, the Air Force wants to use AI to \u201cshorten sensor-to-shooter timelines\u201d and enhance decision-making with \u201csuperior situational awareness and predictive insights,\u201d according to the service\u2019s strategy<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n But to Wolfe, AI can be useful for simplifying the time-consuming processes that go into promotions and military awards.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are doing experiments looking at how we have done promotions boards in the past and how we have picked people for awards\u201d he said.\t\t<\/p>\n Wolfe did stress that AI would not be used to selection Airmen for promotions or awards but in \u201cautomating the process, so that when the human looks it, it\u2019s easy to see, easy to discern and gives us a really good chance of making a really good decision.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we think is in the realm of the possible is we take our already awesome people \u2026 and make them even more capable than they already are by automating processes that they don\u2019t have to put a bunch of time into.\u201d<\/p>\n