In the past six months, the number of U.S. Department of Defense employees using commercial AI tools surged by 1775%, rising from 80,000 to 1.5 million. This was announced by the Pentagon's Chief Technology Officer, Emil Michael, at a Hudson Institute event, as reported by Fortune.
Of the department's total workforce of 3.5 million, about 43% are utilizing artificial intelligence.
One application of this technology is in preparing mandatory reports for Congress. Michael claims that AI can draft such a document in five hours, compared to the 200 hours it would take a full team of employees.
In April, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Science and Technology Jacob Glassman revealed that he tasked an understaffed team with using GenAI.mil to prepare a report. According to him, within a week, the team delivered a finished document, calling it the best in the last five years.
Later, the Pentagon announced partnerships with SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, Reflection, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Oracle for operational use of AI tools.
The use of artificial intelligence in U.S. government agencies is expanding beyond the Department of Defense, journalists report. Authorities began implementing AI initiatives in departments as early as the 1960s, attempting to solve logistical challenges.
The 2020 law on the use of AI in government, passed during Donald Trump's first presidency, spurred practical applications.
However, in March 2026, the U.S. Government Accountability Office warned that the expanded use of neural networks in the public sector could increase the risk of generating false information and accessing data beyond its intended purpose.
Additionally, in May, reports indicated that the Pentagon had formed a group to implement hacking AI models.