The US Marine Corps is bringing together troops, civilian experts, and industry leaders this fall for a hands-on generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) workshop in Quantico, Virginia.
GenAI is an AI capability that produces new outputs, from text and images to code, by learning patterns from massive data sets. It can summarize information, create visualizations, and even suggest solutions to complex problems.
The event will be led by the military’s service data officer, Colin Crosby, who also serves as the US Navy’s deputy chief data officer. Lt. Gen. Melvin Carter, deputy commandant for information, approved the initiative earlier this year as part of the service’s broader AI implementation plan.
“GenAI is advancing rapidly and has broad applicability to augment Marines across the spectrum of functional areas and activities,” Carter said in the workshop announcement.
Stress-Testing the Tech
Over five days, participants will put GenAI tools through hands-on trials simulating real-world tactical challenges.
Attendees will identify high-value use cases, demo tools from industry partners, and develop courses of action for AI integration. They are also expected to arrive prepared with their own scenarios to test and brief.
“The character of war is increasingly defined by the speed and accuracy of decision-making,” the announcement noted.
“The Marine Corps’ ability to achieve cognitive overmatch — to out-think, out-decide, and out-pace our adversaries — is critical to the success of Force Design and our ability to prevail in strategic competition.”
Driving Decision Superiority
The US Marine Corps is betting on AI to sharpen battlefield decision-making, which it sees as a key advantage in modern warfare.
Its widescale adoption strategy through 2026 emphasizes scaling AI adoption, prioritizing applications across defense functions, and tackling barriers in policy, workforce, and infrastructure.
“This is part of our deliberate weaponization of data and AI to drive cognitive overmatch, accelerate decision advantage, and amplify warfighter impact,” Crosby wrote in a LinkedIn post.
