Joanna Crews
IBM‘s Australian unit has secured an estimated $3.1 million contract to provide cognitive computing infrastructure and support to Australia’s defense department, ARN reported Monday.
IBM Australia will furnish the Watson artificial intelligence platform to the department over three years under the limited-tender contract, the publication said.
A spokesperson for the department told ARN the platform will work to support cognitive, AI and machine learning applications and that the contract also covers the delivery of implementation and InfoSec Registered Assessors Program certification services.
ARN noted that Mohan Aiyaswami, the Australian defense department’s chief technology officer, indicated in May 2016 that the agency had sampled Watson for a psychological operations proof-of-concept project.
The AI platform assisted in intelligence analysis and audience targeting in support of psyops, Computerworld reported at the time.
The report said Aiyaswami cited the Watson trials as part of the department’s information technology transformation as it looks to spend approximately $15.3 billion for IT under its defense information and communications technology strategic plan through 2020.
