CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Massachusetts National Guard Senior Airman Matthew Wright recently completed a challenging five-month fellowship program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology through a unique military collaboration between the Department of the Air Force Artificial Intelligence Accelerator program and the private research university.
The fellowship was established to develop and promote the ethical use of artificial intelligence, or AI, technologies for the nation while building a sustainable, end-to-end AI pipeline to maintain U.S. competitiveness in the defense and civilian sectors. The program offers exposure to cutting-edge AI work, customized training and a unique career-enhancing experience.
Wright is among the less than 3% of candidates selected into this distinguished program. He was hand-selected by Col. Scott Ruppel, DAF-MIT AIA director, following a briefing he conducted at Otis Air National Guard Base, Massachusetts, on the 267th Intelligence Squadron’s mission. During his briefing, he explained how, as a cyber analyst with the 267th Intelligence Squadron, he leveraged AI to support his fellow analysts in completing their mission. Wright has a strong interest in working with emerging technologies and AI-enabled systems.
“It was eye-opening to see how much academia is working to solve Department of War problems,” Wright said. “The work being done at MIT Lincoln Laboratory – taking foundational research from the MIT campus and applying it to real-world DAF challenges – is cutting-edge and a key reason the U.S. military remains the most formidable in the world. Programs like this allow talent that might otherwise be confined to a single Air Force Specialty Code [AFSC] to thrive and drive innovation across the Air Force and the DoW.”
During the DAF-MIT AIA program, he served as the only enlisted Airman on his team and was among the very first junior enlisted Airmen selected in the program’s history, contributing operational military and intelligence experience to his projects.
“Junior members often bring a different level of energy,” said Master Sgt. Nathaniel Maidel, DAF-MIT AIA research chief for Imagery Intelligence operations. “They tend to be younger and are not afraid of fresh ideas or taking on challenges that those of us with more experience or institutional knowledge may choose to avoid, given that experience. Senior Airman Wright was no different. His willingness to jump into new domains and engage with experts from different fields helped progress our efforts to make AI real for Airmen and Guardians.”
The Phantom Program is a fellowship that immerses participants in advanced AI research and practical application. As a Phantom, Wright worked alongside leading AI researchers and fellow Airmen and Space Force Guardians on a variety of AI projects, contributing his expertise while developing new processes to bridge research and real-world implementation. The program offers exposure to cutting-edge AI work, customized training and a unique career-enhancing experience.
Throughout the 22-week fellowship, Wright immersed himself in advanced AI research and practical applications with lead researchers and innovators at MIT. In addition to completing 60 hours of independent AI education, he took on the “Multi-Foundational Models for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Decision-Making” project. The team leveraged foundational research from MIT in collaboration with the Lincoln Laboratory at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, and focused on few-shot computer vision models.
In addition to his team assignment, Wright completed an individual capstone project addressing an operational challenge applicable to the 102nd Intelligence Wing and the broader U.S. Air Force and Department of War missions of national defense and security. He authored a research paper and capstone brief titled “Synthetic Network Data Generation for Analyst Training,” which explored the use of large language models to generate synthetic malicious network data to enhance cyber analyst training.
“One of the hardest parts about innovation is clearly identifying the problem you are trying to solve,” Maidel said. “Through the Phantom program and his individual research project, Phantoms like SrA Wright bring real issues to research that may be overlooked or under-resourced. He brought a clearly defined problem facing cyber defenders and an idea on how to solve it. The AIA and Phantom program simply provided the opportunity and resources to pursue that solution.”
As a Phantom alum, Wright is tasked with demonstrating how to responsibly implement AI into the daily battle rhythm at the 102nd Intelligence Wing. He is expected to serve as an AI advocate, working to foster a culture of forward thinking across the force, emphasizing that people are the true AI capability and that the technology serves only as a tool to support the nation’s defense. The connections he made during the program are essential to sustaining this work, and he will continue to rely on that network moving forward.
“Senior Airman Wright is now responsible for promoting the program and mentoring his fellow Airmen who are interested in AI,” said Maj. Phillip Benevides, director of intelligence, 102nd Intelligence Wing. “As members of the 102nd Intelligence Wing, Airmen have a unique opportunity, through our cooperative agreement with the DAF-MIT AIA, to participate in this premier AI program.”
“I am very grateful for my time at the DAF-MIT AIA,” Wright said. “I learned a lot and developed into the kind of AI talent the DoW needs to stay at the forefront of innovation.”