The Pentagon’s chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, Cameron Stanley, has warned that the United States’ closest allies are struggling to match the pace of the U.S. military’s integration of artificial intelligence (AI). Speaking at the Billington Cybersecurity summit, Stanley emphasized that organizations like NATO and the Five Eyes—a group of allied nations including the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand—lack the resources, experience, or scale needed to keep up with the rapid advancements in military AI. He said Washington is actively helping these partners avoid the same challenges the U.S. faced during its own AI development, such as inefficiencies and security risks. Stanley’s remarks come early in his tenure, during which the Pentagon’s AI office has launched new tools while facing staff turnover. Since January, he has overseen the introduction of GenAI.mil, an internal AI chatbot that has reached 1.7 million users, and Agent Network, a system designed to speed up the process of turning intelligence into actionable decisions for military commanders. Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth has also tasked Stanley’s team with tracking the speed of AI deployment as a monthly performance measure, highlighting the department’s focus on accelerating military computing capabilities. Much of Stanley’s presentation centered on the importance of speed in modern warfare. He described an instance where a commander interrupted a briefing to take a quick phone call and issue an immediate order, bypassing the usual formal procedures. He called the moment “revolutionary,” explaining that what seems simple now is only possible because the U.S. has become highly proficient in using AI to make rapid decisions. This idea of “revolutionary” speed has been a recurring theme in his speeches. The Pentagon’s original AI project, Project Maven, launched in 2017, evolved into the Maven Smart System built by the company Palantir. This system played a major role in the 2026 U.S. air campaign against Iran, enabling the military to strike over 13,000 targets in the first 38 days. However, the campaign has faced criticism, especially after a February 28 strike on an elementary school in Minab, which Iranian officials claim killed at least 168 people, many of them children. Over 120 members of Congress have since demanded answers from the Pentagon about civilian casualties and the use of AI in the strikes. Stanley concluded his remarks by stating that the military’s traditional methods are now its greatest risk, urging the department to rethink its approach to deploy AI tools more effectively and safely in the hands of combat personnel.