As the Pentagon prepares to release its fiscal 2025 budget proposal, experts in artificial intelligence are hopeful that planned investments in the technology will be safeguarded from concerns that could cut into other defense accounts.
The department’s spending on AI in fiscal 2024 has been hamstrung by the lack of full-year appropriations so far, leaving money requested for such operations unapproved and inaccessible. Officials at the Pentagon’s central hub for AI have had to “cannibalize some things in order to be able to keep other things alive,” chief officer Craig Martell told reporters last month.
And while the current spending difficulties look to be rectified soon, DOD is set to release its fiscal 2025 budget request on March 11 under Defense financing caps set by the bipartisan debt limit deal, which holds down spending across the department.
