The US Navy’s New GenAI Tool: What GovCons Should Know

The U.S. Navy is preparing to release a new generative AI tool as part of an effort to accelerate these technologies to its workforce to help augment their day-to-day work.

This capability, called DoN GPT, works at the enterprise level and is used in the Navy’s Flank Speed secure cloud computing environment for routine work, DefenseScoop has reported. Jacob Glassman, a senior technical advisor to the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, said he demonstrated DoN GPT to an assistant secretary after having tuned it with all of the Navy’s previous acquisition strategies. He issued DoN GPT a prompt to create a new acquisition strategy for a specific mission along with a graphic and the program created them in five minutes.

The service performed trials over 45 days to figure out the top AI use cases for DoN GPT for an initial portion of the Navy workforce. This shortened trial window allowed the program’s developers to target bugs that they usually would not identify for years after deploying an enterprise service.

“That enables us to scale, but also enables us to reach every single enterprise user in the Navy and Marine Corps,” Glassman said.

Find out other ways the Navy plans to use GenAI to better perform missions at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Navy Summit on August 26! Attend an illuminating panel on optimizing Navy decision-making with GenAI. Network with leading GovCon firms including SAIC, Seekr and Fortress. Sign up today and increase your bottom line at this elite GovCon event!

How Does GenAI Work?

GenAI uses mature machine learning models, also known as deep learning models, that mimic how the human brain learns and makes decisions. A GenAI system learns to create more objects that resemble the data it was previously trained on.

Naval Research Laboratory personnel are investigating and experimenting with AI for a range of uses. Raj Dasgupta, NRL distributed intelligent systems research scientist, said some of these uses are related to attack simulations, large language models, reinforcement learning and large reasoning models.

The Navy’s AI Rapid Capability Cell

DoN GPT is the latest example of the Department of Defense testing its use of GenAI. DOD has unveiled a GenAI accelerator called the AI Rapid Capability Cell to grow the scale at which DOD personnel use GenAI, according to GovCIO.

The AI Rapid Capability Cell advances on DOD’s Task Force Lima, which was an 18-month effort to move a cohesive approach to responsible GenAI adoption forward through the department. Where Task Force Lima was about analysis and understanding, the AI Rapid Capability Cell is about more than that. It’s about accelerating function, specific investments and creating GenAI pilots and room for experimentation to put the technology in the hands of operators, said Jon Elliott, AI Rapid Capability Cell’s deputy director.

What Is DOD’s GenAI Toolkit?

The DOD’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office published a GenAI version of the Responsible AI Toolkit called the GenAI Toolkit. This allows GenAI project executives to prioritize responsible and safe design, development, deployment and use of the technology.

The GenAI Toolkit advances through each stage of the product development lifecycle, including novel or modified questions and 33 additional tools to approach risks and concerns unique to GenAI. As an example, it offers a prescreening guide that assists users in figuring out whether GenAI is the proper technology to meet their specific operational need.

The Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Navy Summit on August 26 will feature a timely panel on how the Navy can leverage GenAI to balance human insight with AI precision. Hear perspectives from influential government decision makers such as Navy Deputy Director for Project Overmatch Rebecca Gassler and Navy Reserve Chief of Staff for AI Navigation Plan Implementation Framework Nick Kesler. Register now for this can’t-miss GovCon conference for Navy collaborators!