At AI conference, Gen. Caine calls for connecting with ‘founders and funders’ of emerging tech

In his most high-profile public address since becoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine told members of industry Wednesday that the Pentagon needs to do more to connect with “founders and funders” of emerging technologies. During a keynote address at the AI+ Expo in Washington hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project, which brought together some of the biggest companies in the tech sector as well as smaller vendors with more niche capabilities, Caine suggested legacy systems and old ways of doing business won’t be sufficient for maintaining military superiority in the future. “Peace in our nation will not be won by the legacy systems that we’ve had or the legacy thinking. It will be determined by the entrepreneurs and innovators and leaders, both in government and out of government, that create overwhelming strength. It will be won by our breakthroughs in AI, cyber, autonomy, space, energy, advanced manufacturing, data, compute, you name it. And we need your help with this,” he said. New capabilities can improve command-and-control systems, decision-making, mission execution and survivability, he noted. However, the Pentagon needs industry to scale new technology to the point that it becomes a “strategic differentiator.” Advertisement U.S. adversaries are sharing tech and intelligence, enabling them to field advanced capabilities faster, he warned. “And on our end, the barrier for entry for technology, for disruptive tech, is low, but the barr...