The inspector general offices at the Department of Defense (DoD) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) will conduct a joint evaluation of the NGA’s integration of the Maven AI program, according to a Sept. 9 memo.
The DoD established Maven in 2017 to speed the integration of big data and machine learning technologies in the U.S. military inventory. The NGA was given operational control of the project in 2022.
“The objective of this evaluation is to assess the effectiveness with which the [NGA] has integrated the Maven artificial intelligence program into the NGA’s geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) operations and fielded the technology to DoD mission areas,” the watchdogs’ memo states.
The officials emphasized that they “may revise the objective as the evaluation proceeds,” and will also consider suggestions for additional adjustments.
“We will perform the evaluation at the NGA. We may identify additional locations during the evaluation,” the memo reads.
An NGA spokesperson told MeriTalk today that the IG evaluation was “pre-planned” and “pre-coordinated” as a “joint opportunity for NGA and DoD to focus on a high-priority mission area that is of interest both within the Defense community and beyond, given the importance of Artificial Intelligence to drive U.S. National Security policy.”
Maven has already been fielded in multiple locations around the globe by the U.S. armed forces, and it has shown encouraging results. For example, the Kentucky National Guard used Maven to identify areas of interest by fusing data from intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems.
In an exclusive interview with MeriTalk last year, Mark Munsell, director of NGA’s Data and Digital Innovation Directorate said, “NGA’s ability to detect objects from imagery or computer vision is getting better and better over time. So, we are bringing in NGA’s full cadre of experts in this area and applying that to Maven to make it better.”
Munsell said at the time that NGA was working towards “programifying” Maven. As a program, NGA Maven will benefit maritime domain awareness, target management and NGA’s ability to automatically search and detect objects of interest.
