The Air Force by the end of 2016 will have a beta version of a website that serves as an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven contracting officer, according to a key official.
Air Force Assistant Secretary for Acquisitions Camron Gorguinpour said Friday the project, known as AQ Prime, will use cognitive computing to reduce bureaucracy in Air Force acquisitions. He said the website will take questions from the public on how to do various kinds of business with the service and will respond with the best possible result. Being based on cognitive computing, AQ Prime will learn over time and improve, Gorguinpour said. He added that the Air Force currently has an AQ Prime prototype.
Air Force spokesman Robert Leese said Friday the service in July awarded Applied Research in Acoustics and KalScott Engineering contracts to create a natural language query system that leverages commercial sector advances in cognitive computing algorithms to provide users insights into defense contracting statutes, regulations, practices and policies. Applied Research in Acoustics and KalScott Engineering were both awarded nearly $150,000 each.
Leese said an application should be completed by the summer of 2018. He also said Applied Research in Acoustics and KalScott Engineering are the two companies moving forward to the next phase of development.
The goal of AQ Prime is to serve as a resource for businesses not used to working with the military so they can understand complex government regulation, according to an Air Force statement. In Phase I, various techniques will be investigated and one or more solutions will be developed and tested. In Phase II, the downselected technologies will be refined and built-out.
The benefits of AQ Prime include natural language techniques for rapid and intelligent search tools for internet users, as well as for custom applications in industry, according an Air Force statement. These may include searching medial, financial and travel databases, research databases, among others.
AQ Prime is part of the Air Force’s Bending the Cost Curve initiative, an effort to make the Air Force more effective at how it spends money to get better capabilities to the warfighter faster.