US Navy adopts AI-first strategy, prioritizes speed over caution

The US Department of the Navy signed a strategy to "weaponize" data and AI, aiming to build an "AI-first" fleet with large language models (LLMs) running directly on warships. An AI war council would help prioritize mission scenarios, and the strategy treats slow adoption as a bigger risk than imperfect alignment.

Why it matters: This is a concrete signal that US military AI policy is shifting from caution toward urgency, likely reflecting perceived competition with China. Running LLMs directly on warships, rather than via cloud APIs, also raises new questions about model reliability and safety testing in disconnected, high-stakes environments.