The U.S. needs to ramp up its data collection and labeling to better compete against China in AI, according to Pentagon AI chief Crag Martell.  Speaking at a warfare symposium this week in Colorado, Martell said the U.S. must find ways to label data for AI training at scale or risk losing to China in the AI race. More: Fundamentally, the U.S. needs to "get the data right" first and have "great analytics" on top of that to stay ahead in the race, Martell said. "If we're going to beat China, and we have to beat China in AI, we have to find a way to label at scale," he said. "Because if we don't label at scale, we're not going to win." Martell, who was previously head of machine learning at Lyft, was appointed as the Pentagon's chief digital and artificial intelligence officer (CDAO) last April. The CDAO is the Pentagon's top official responsible for accelerating AI, digital solutions, and data integration in the department. He oversees Pentagon's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, the chief data officer, and Defense Digital Services and reports directly to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks. As of 2021, the U.S. Department of Defense was working on nearly 700 AI projects.