On August 12, Arize AI announced it has been selected by AFWERX for a Direct-to-Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract in the amount of approximately $1.2 million per year to conduct a 12‑month R&D focused effort on AI engineering capabilities for NIPRGPT / GCP AI enhancement to address the most pressing challenges in the Department of the Air Force (DAF).
The Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and eliminating bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution.
The DAF began offering the Open Topic SBIR/STTR program in 2018, which expanded the range of innovations the DAF funded. With this contract award, Arize AI will create and provide an R&D AI engineering platform that will strengthen the national defense of the United States of America by accelerating the deployment of powerful generative AI applications such as agentic AI and RAG-based use cases.
“Arize AI is excited to support DAF in maintaining and accelerating global AI dominance and innovation for the American warfighter,” said Jason Lopatecki, co‑founder and CEO of Arize AI.
NIPRGPT is a prototype large language model (LLM) authorized at Impact Level 5 (IL5), developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory for the Department of the Air Force’s Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) workloads. It offers a ChatGPT-like experience with the ability to maintain chat history, enabling critical assessments of the feasibility and security of deploying Generative AI on the Non-classified Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPRNet). NIPRGPT provides valuable insights into technical challenges, security implications, and operational benefits, assisting the Department of the Air Force in the secure and ethical adoption of commercial AI technologies.
The Arize AX R&D effort promises to help NIPRGPT by automating prompt engineering and online evaluation within CAC/NIPRNet constraints with metrics for quality, safety, efficiency, and compliance so leaders can see what works in practice. Insights from user feedback and key operational telemetry metrics will flow back to inform future policy, acquisition, and investment decisions across the DAF.
Source: Arize AI
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