Pentagon Names Cameron Stanley Next Digital and AI Chief

The Pentagon has named Cameron Stanley as Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer. This was announced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on January 12, 2026. Stanley isn't new to The Pentagon.

From 2021 to 2022, he led Project Maven, the department's flagship initiative to integrate computer vision and machine learning into warfighter operations. Maven algorithms now actively support targeting and surveillance across Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and the Red Sea, demonstrating what happens when military AI moves from research to real-world deployment.

Before Maven, Stanley served as Chief Data Officer for the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. Most recently, he was national security digital transformation lead at Amazon Web Services.

The new Department of War AI strategy, released this month, contains language that would have been unthinkable in previous administrations: "The risks of not moving fast enough outweigh the risks of imperfect alignment."​