The Department of Defense tapped Google's Gemini for the first major deployment of its new generative AI platform, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Tuesday.
Why it matters: The rollout appears to be one of the first mass deployments of a commercially created generative AI tool across the entire Pentagon.
- "The future of American warfare is here, and it's spelled A-I," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a video posted on X.
Driving the news: The Defense Department said Tuesday it will deploy Gemini for Government through the new GenAI.mil platform so employees can use it on their work computers.
- Pentagon employees can use Gemini in the new platform to "conduct deep research, format documents and even analyze video or imagery in unprecedented speed," Hegseth said in the video.
- Today's announcement means genAI tools have "now reached all desktops in the Pentagon and in American military installations around the world," according to a department press release.
Zoom in: Google Cloud said in a press release that employees can use Gemini for Government for "unclassified work," such as personnel onboarding, automating administrative tasks and accelerating contract workflows.
- None of the Defense Department's data will be used to train Google's public models, the company added.
The big picture: The Defense Department has been rapidly embracing the new generative AI era.
- Emil Michael, the department's chief technology officer, told reporters at the Defense Writers Group on Monday that he envisions AI tools being used to speed up day-to-day administrative tasks, analyze intelligence, model and simulate conflict.
- In the coming "days and weeks," Michael told reporters, "we're going to start pushing deployment of these capabilities directly to the 3 million users at the Pentagon at different classification levels."
Reality check: The Pentagon was already experimenting with generative AI across its offices and military branches, and Google unveiled a $200 million-ceiling contract with the department in July to deploy its frontier AI tools.
- Several other AI companies — including xAI, OpenAI, Anthropic and Scale AI — have also signed contracts with the Pentagon this year.
- A spokesperson for Defense Department did not immediately respond to questions about what new capabilities Pentagon employees now have. A representative for Google Cloud responded to Axios' questions with a link to the department's press release.
The intrigue: The deployment is part of a major winning streak for Google. Gemini's wins have spurred competitors to change their internal strategies to keep up.
What to watch: Whether the other AI companies who signed Pentagon contracts are also deployed onto GenAI.mil.
Go deeper: Tech's dance with the Pentagon speeds up
