Compass Points - Maven
Marine makes Maven magic
Compass Points - Maven
Marine makes Maven magic
May 12. 2026
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Where do Marines go when they leave the Marine Corps?
Often Marines leave behind their Marine Corps duties and embark on entirely different careers. One Marine, Drew Cukor, left the Marine Corps and landed a spot at JPMorgan Chase and now is at TWG Global. Why are big finanacial companies interested in Cukor? Is it because he went back to school? Did he give a TED talk? No, big firms want Drew Cukor because of what he accomplished during his years in the Marine Corps.
One author recounts efforts to meet with the civilian Drew Cukor.
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When I first meet Drew Cukor, he has little in the way of easy smiles. It is mid-2024, and I have already spent almost a year trying to convince him to speak with me. I wait for him after work in the lobby of the towering New York office of J.P. Morgan, the bank where the retired Marine Corps colonel is now leading the transformation of artificial intelligence for chief executive Jamie Dimon.
-- The Walrus
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Now, a Bloomberg writer -- the same one who had so much trouble meeting in person with Cukor -- has written a book about Drew Cukor and the project he led while on active duty, “Project Maven: A Marine Colonel, His Team, and the Dawn of AI Warfare.” How important is what Colonel Cukor accomplished on active duty?
One senior retired Marine emailed a note to his retired Marine network about Drew Cukor.
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Gentleman, On several occasions I have mentioned a book I read titled, Project Maven. The first two-thirds of the book tells the story of an extraordinarily talented Marine Colonel who leads a DOD office working to bring artificial intelligence into military intelligence processes. He is a strong-willed, no-nonsense kind of guy willing to bulldoze through obstacles. He tells his staff if something they want to do is illegal don’t do it. But if it is against policy, ignore the policy. He brings on board several very small companies that are now large AI power houses—Plantir being one.
By the time of his retirement, the AI software is basically working. Military units, especially SOF, are asking for it. There are some hiccups, but the AI idea is proving itself. If this were the end of the story, I might suggest reading the book, however, there is much more. Maven evolves from support of the intelligence function into targeting, then operations, and on to logistics, and more. Soon, other friendly nations pick it up. It is now at the heart of all US military operations. Bottom line, we cannot understand current operations without some knowledge of Maven. I believe you MUST read the book if you want to remain engaged.
-- Senior retired Marine
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What is Project Maven? The book about Project Maven has been described as, “The dramatic story of the secretive decade-long Pentagon campaign to deliver America into the age of AI warfare.”
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In 2017, a small crew gathered in a windowless Pentagon room to put AI at the heart of how America makes war. Led by Drew Cukor, an unyielding Marine Corps colonel driven by the deaths of US troops and the prospect of war with an AI-equipped China, the Project Maven team raced to send AI into combat, igniting controversy and forever changing the US military.
Summoning the mayhem of a tech startup, the Maven team wrestled Pentagon bureaucrats and each other. They enlisted an initially reluctant Silicon Valley, supercharged the growth of Palantir, and sent algorithms made by Amazon, Microsoft, and others into hot wars. Maven fielded technology to identify targets at speed and scale, developed AI-infused command systems, and learned where AI fails.
The prospect of machines making independent decisions about life and death alarmed members of the military across all ranks and the project sparked a revolt among thousands of tech workers at Google. Yet today, Maven’s AI-enabled systems operate in every branch of the US military, and its lessons are folded into developing autonomous technology set to be on the front lines of future war.
Project Maven and its legacy sit at the intersection of colliding trends: America’s insecurity about declining global power, the technological revolution driving AI into every aspect of society, the dominance of Big Tech, all-encompassing surveillance, and the ambitions of China’s growing military. As the second Trump administration pours money into military AI and autonomy while the UN Secretary-General clamors for a ban on killer robots, this book investigates whether AI will improve accuracy and save lives or if a fundamentally unreliable black-box technology will unleash mistakes and atrocities at scale.
Drawing on more than 200 interviews with insiders and opponents, this compelling narrative tells the definitive story of how AI warfare, once the stuff of apocalyptic science fiction, has become a reality.
-- W.W. Norton, Project Maven
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How does Maven help US military commanders in battle?
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Maven functions like both the air traffic control of battle and its cockpit.
Aalok Mehta, director of the CSIS Wadhwani AI Center, described the system as “essentially an overlay” that fuses sensor data, enemy troop intelligence, satellite imagery, and information on troop deployment.
In practice, that means rapidly scanning satellite feeds to detect troop movements or identify targets, while also “taking a snapshot of the operational theater” to determine the best course of action for striking a specific target.
In a recent demonstration posted online, a Pentagon official described how Maven “magically” turns an observed threat into a targeting workflow, weighing available assets and presenting a commander with options.
-- Gulf News
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Part of the value of Maven is that it is additive to existing military capabilities. Maven is technology that adds to existing capabilities, it does not try to replace them.
Years ago, as the dangers of China’s precision munitions began to grow, the Marine Corps responded by slashing its own proven, combined arms, units, equipment and capabilities. Missiles and drones could have been simply added to existing Marine capabilities. Unfortunately, senior leaders decided new missiles and drones could somehow replace existing capabilities, instead of adding to them.
Maven adds to Marine capabilities. Maven helps Marines to do what they do better and faster. Maven is an OODA Loop technology that gives Marines the edge in any conflict.
Compass Points salutes retired Marine Colonel Drew Cukor and all those, on and off active duty, who are adding to Marine capabilities, so the Marine Corps of tomorrow will be stronger than the Marine Corps of today.
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W.W. Norton
Project Maven: A Marine Colonel, His Team, and the Dawn of AI Warfare
By Katrina Manson
https://wwnorton.com/books/project-maven
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The Walrus - 03/31/2026
The Man Who Put AI at the Centre of America’s War Machine
by Katrina Manson
https://thewalrus.ca/the-man-who-put-ai-at-the-centre-of-americas-war-machine/
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Gulf News - 04/05/2026
AI at war: Five things to know about Project Maven
Pentagon and Palantir declined to comment on Maven’s performance in the war with Iran
https://gulfnews.com/world/americas/ai-at-war-five-things-to-know-about-project-maven-1.500496658
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A few thoughts. Human nature wants us to discard and acquire. The acquire and discard paradigm is better. Add the new quickly and discard slowly lest you lose balance.
AI holds huge promise to for the seasoned staff and commanders to plan quickly. It remains mathematical and is less intuitive let alone a “genius for war” which remains an endeavor like no other human effort.
Anything humans can design other humans can infiltrate and disrupt or redirect. I certainly hope that all of these developments have Red Cells to continually play the Devil’s advocate. The German Enigma Codes were mathematically unbreakable. Yet, they were broken. No after action review from WWII is complete without considering that we were reading their dispatches. The one time they distributed their operational orders via other means the result was the surprise of the Battle of the Bulge, the largest and most costly battle ever fought by the US Army.
NFL football is very, very simple as opposed to war. I would like to see how AI might influence a playbook for a season and a game plan per game. Even if you can develop a play in .2 seconds the 11 players still must execute it which is exceedingly difficult if not practiced repeatedly.
Over my limited service I never witnessed a higher HQ fail to come up with a plan. Some were exceptional. Some worked, especially if the KISS rule was adhered to. Just as often I saw plans that simply could not be executed when the friction of war put its finger on the scales.
By all means, forge ahead. Do so with a sober understanding that blind enthusiasm is a double edged sword.
Col Cukor’s inspired achievements are all the more impressive given daunting bureaucratic resistance.
There is a revealing inside story on our receptivity to change.
Did Colonel Cukor succeed because of or in spite of us?
How do we intentionally replicate such an insightful, skilled maverick and catalytic team?
The maturation of Maven within the XVIII Airborne Corps, EUCOM, and others bought us precious time in the face of a resolute threat.
We cannot squander it.