Capt. M. Xavier Lugo

Defense Leadership

U.S. Navy Capt. M. Xavier Lugo was appointed to a new and critically important role in the Department of Defense: mission commander of Task Force Lima, DOD’s initiative to examine generative AI and develop recommendations on how to responsibly use it across the department. Under Capt. Lugo’s leadership, Task Force Lima will “develop, evaluate, recommend, and monitor the implementation of generative AI capabilities across the DoD to ensure the department is ready to implement, adopt, and appropriately protect against generative AI technologies, such as large language models (LLMs).” Lugo is a 28-year Navy officer with extensive experience in the Supply Corps. A mechanical engineer by degree, he’s been a coder since high school and is also an operations research graduate from the Naval Postgraduate School. In his previous assignment, he worked to modernize logistics-aligned information technologies for the entire Navy.