Palantir and Anduril, two leading companies at the intersection of commercial technology and national security, have officially come together to launch a consortium, which will effectively ensure that the U.S. government leads the world in artificial intelligence.
According to certain reports, the stated consortium will bring forth technological infrastructure, from the edge to the enterprise, capable of empowering the government and industry partners to transform America’s world-leading AI advancements into next-generation military and national security capabilities.
More on the same would reveal how this partnership is going to address two key problems, in particular, that currently limit the adoption of AI for national security purposes.
The first of those problems would be data readiness, as most useful national security data, government data which is collected and created by sensors, vehicles, weapons, and robots at the tactical edge, is not retained for AI training and algorithm development. Hence, exabytes of defense data, indispensable for AI training and inferencing, is currently going to waste.
To understand the given issue, this new consortium will leverage Anduril’s Lattice software system and the Anduril Menace family of deployable compute and communications systems to put together a tactical edge for the government’s secure, large-scale data retention and distribution.
Making this significant is how Lattice connects directly with third-party defense systems at the edge, delivers autonomy to machine operations, and securely distributes their information across a large-scale data mesh. It can also backhaul all tactical data into government enclaves to facilitate AI training and inferencing.
In case that wasn’t enough, even the Menace devices are purpose-built for the tactical edge, customized down to the silicon level for the unique requirements of national security operations in tactical environments, including, soon, next- generation encryption.
Turning our attention towards the second problem, it is rooted in the complications of processing data at scale. You see, despite what little security data is retained, no secure enterprise pipeline exists to turn that data into AI capabilities. Now, while companies across the country are developing world-leading models, they have struggled, so far, to deploy them at scale with government partners for defense applications.
Here, the new consortium will bank upon Palantir’s AI Platform (AIP) to deliver a cloud-based data management and AI development capability that operates at the hyper-scale of commercial industry while meeting the unique requirements of national security. Such a setup, like you can guess, should tread up a long distance to facilitate the structuring, labeling, and preparation of defense data for AI training and development at all levels of classification, including Secure Compartmented Information (SCI) and Special Access Programs (SAP).
Another detail worth a mention here is how Palantir’s AIP can be expected to provide a seamless interface for commercial and government AI developers. This, in turn, should help in conducting imitation and reinforcement learning. In case that wasn’t enough, it also lets you access a secure pipeline to deploy, retrain, and redeploy those AI models onto national security systems, a process which was made even easier, faster, and more reliable through the integration with Anduril’s unique edge capabilities.
Moving on, the consortium further plans on conceiving a rapid and ready mechanism to operationalize these new AI capabilities directly through defense production programs that are already fielded. For instance, Maven Smart System, powered by the Palantir Platform, is seemingly capable of providing an enterprise mission command platform which integrates large-scale operational data. At the same time, it utilizes AI-based capabilities to improve and accelerate human decision-making across joint missions, such as intelligence and fires.
In parallel, Anduril’s Lattice software platform delivers at your disposal an edge-based mission autonomy platform which integrates directly with robotic systems and uses AI-based capabilities to automate and orchestrate their conduct of joint missions, such as air defense and reconnaissance.
With the technology already active across Anduril and Palantir for their own corporate purposes, and initial government contracts already secured, the stated new consortium can start its operations right from the get go.
