The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) has published a white paper on a topic impacting the intelligence community (IC) and, more specifically, the GEOINT community — Geospatial Intelligence & AI/ML Progress During a Pandemic.
The recent global working climate, altered by COVID-19, has driven considerable change in how the geospatial community delivers support and new capabilities for artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML).
The pandemic created a condition where many analysts to worked from home without much of the advanced infrastructure required for ML, while the high demands of mission requirements remained. The geospatial community had to adapt. USGIF focuses on this and more in the Foundation’s latest document.
USGIF worked with the community to understand the impact, assess the benefits and challenges, and make predictions for the future of the IC and GEOINT community amid a pandemic. The white paper was written in conjunction with the members of USGIF’s MLAI Working Group.
Executive Comments
“We’ve had to modify our approach in delivering ML/AI solutions to adapt to the telework environment. These changes were not only implemented from an operations and technological perspective, but also cultural,” said Wynn Thane, Associate Director for Data Analytics, National Security Segment, Guidehouse, and USGIF’s Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Working Group (ML&AI WG) Chair. “We’d like to thank the members of USGIF’s ML&AI Working Group. They were key to the development of this whitepaper. The insights and experiences from this inspiring group of professionals represent the geospatial community’s productive response to the COVID-19 pandemic.