The White House is pursuing several new efforts meant to advance U.S. leadership on artificial intelligence, announcing Thursday the creation of a new task force on data center infrastructure and related measures following a meeting with several executives of leading AI and tech companies. The meeting centered on key aspects of the physical infrastructure required to build AI infrastructure in the U.S., including clean energy permitting and workforce requirements — priorities that seemingly echo policymakers’ discussions about boosting semiconductor manufacturing.

Meanwhile, an end-of-life version of Ivanti’s cloud IT service management software has a recently released vulnerability that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency says is being exploited. CISA warned that organizations outfitted with Ivanti’s Cloud Service Appliance version 4.6 and below are being targeted by hackers and the bug has been added to the known exploited vulnerabilities (KEV) list. The Utah-based company said on Friday that a “limited number of customers” have confirmed exploitation but did not provide further details.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is asking organizations to provide information about artificial intelligence technologies for use in health care outcomes and service delivery as it plans demonstration events. In a request for information announced earlier this week, CMS said it wants to gather information about AI products and services from health care companies, providers, payers, start-ups and others, and plans to eventually select organizations to provide demos of those technologies at “CMS AI Demo Days” starting in October. The demo days will be held quarterly and are intended “to educate and inspire the CMS workforce on AI capabilities and provide information to inform potential future agency action."

The Office of Management and Budget is set to soon issue a new memo to help guide agencies’ acquisition of artificial intelligence technologies. Deputy Federal CIO Drew Myklegard said Tuesday at FedTalks, produced by FedScoop, that on top of all the milestones the Biden administration has met since issuing its landmark AI executive order last fall, OMB has been developing guidance to ensure federal agencies are following best practices when acquiring AI technologies. The forthcoming memo will follow the release of more wide-ranging OMB guidance issued March 28 on federal adoption of AI with a focus on governance, risk and transparency. Myklegard didn’t give a specific timeline for the release of that guidance, but the executive order called for OMB to produce “an initial means to ensure that agency contracts for the acquisition of AI systems and services align with” OMB’s earlier AI guidance within 180 days of its issuance — so, by Sept 24.

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A new assessment standard to guide how Pentagon components evaluate and approve zero-trust cybersecurity solutions for responsible use will soon be finalized and ready for release, according to a senior official overseeing its making. During FedTalks 2024, hosted by Scoop News Group on Tuesday, Les Call — director of the DOD’s Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office — provided the latest update on his team’s unfolding pursuits to drive this implementation, and to continue “progressing at a fast rate.” Call said Pentagon officials are working closely with a range of industry partners and representatives, including the Cloud Security Alliance, to pinpoint compliant capabilities that can accelerate DOD components’ paths to fully achieving zero trust.

A key component of the landmark executive order on artificial intelligence issued by President Joe Biden last year was to meet a handful of requirements aimed at bolstering the AI talent pool throughout the federal government. And according to a new Government Accountability Office report, those benchmarks have been cleared. The congressional watchdog said Monday that 13 AI management and talent requirements in Biden’s order were fully implemented by the March 2024 deadline, checking off boxes that the GAO said would effectively lay the groundwork for governmentwide AI efforts.

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Intelligence community officials said Friday they expect Russia, Iran and China to increase the cadence of influence operations targeting U.S. voters over the final two months of the 2024 election cycle. The assessment comes after a whirlwind month where U.S. officials accused Iran of engaging in a hack-and-leak operation targeting the presidential campaign of Donald Trump and JD Vance, and this week imposed indictments, seizures and economic sanctions on Russian government officials and members of state media organ RT for a $10 million scheme to covertly launder pro-Russian propaganda through the right-wing media outfit Tenet Media and popular conservative influencers. But officials at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told reporters Friday that they continue to view these activities as forms of election “influence” as opposed to direct attempts to interfere with or disrupt voting and election infrastructure .

The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate plans to award a contract to the nonprofit OpenMined for research and development-related services meant to curb online content related to violent extremism, according to a government posting. The agreement comes as part of the U.S. government’s work in response to the Christchurch Call, which the Biden administration joined in 2021. That initiative, which brings together technology platforms and government leaders, was formed following the 2019 mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 51 people.

The federal government is closing in on total zero-trust implementation across agencies as the Sept. 30 deadline to do so approaches quickly. During a panel at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit in Washington, D.C., Federal CIO Clare Martorana announced that the 24 Chief Financial Officers Act agencies are all in the “high 90% range” for implementing the basic elements of a zero-trust architecture, which they are required to do by the end of the fiscal year. Additionally, Martorana said that metrics have shown, broadly, that federal entities have moved from 81% to 87% in completion rates.

The National Labor Relations Board is the latest beneficiary of the Technology Modernization Fund, receiving $23 million from the fund to modernize its case management system.The investment will help the NLRB replace its “outdated system” with a newer cloud-based solution, “dramatically improving the agency’s ability to protect workers’ rights and process labor disputes efficiently,” according to an announcement Thursday from the General Services Administration, which oversees the TMF program.

The U.S. government formally accused Russia of attempting to interfere in the 2024 elections, as the Department of Justice unveiled charges Wednesday against multiple individuals and seized dozens of domains they say were part of a wide-ranging campaign to influence American voters. During a press conference, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the operations “make clear the ends to which the Russian government, including at its highest levels, is willing to go to undermine our democratic process.” Two employees of Russia Today were indicted in the Southern District of New York on charges that they used foreign shell companies to direct $10 million to an unnamed Tennessee-based company to disseminate Russian disinformation on social media. They also allegedly invented a fictitious private investor to engage U.S.-based social media influencers with large followings to spread similar content.

Meanwhile, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is moving away from petitioning social media platforms to take down false or inaccurate posts about elections. CISA leadership continues to express confidence that the nation’s election infrastructure is well-protected for the 2024 elections, citing a litany of improvements to election security made since 2016. In past election cycles, CISA’s work included sharing information and flagging specific accounts and posts spreading false information for removal or content moderation. However, Director Jen Easterly made it clear that work would not be part of CISA’s election security mission this time around, saying that CISA’s role is to work with partners on overall threats to election infrastructure.

More than 140 groups, including immigrant and civil rights organizations, are raising concerns about the Department of Homeland Security’s use of artificial intelligence, arguing in a letter sent to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday that the agency is violating federal rules on the technology. The letter calls on DHS and many of its components to suspend several AI use cases, including systems deployed by Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Meanwhile, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Digital GI Bill platform that was set to be fully operational by April 2024 is now “severely” delayed and will cost double the original amount, according to the department’s Office of Inspector General. Insufficient planning on the part of the Veterans Benefits Administration is to blame for delays and $479 million in additional costs for the Digital GI Bill Platform, which aims to modernize access to relevant services while reducing costs and setbacks from legacy systems.

In 2018, a secure communications app known as Anom was released and quickly gained popularity with organized criminals who saw it as a new tool to conduct operations out of the view of law enforcement. But little did they know, the very app they believed gave them a place to hide was secretly being run by the FBI. In his new book Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation, journalist Joseph Cox explores the story of Anom and how it gave U.S. law enforcement and their global counterparts a front-row seat to the underworld. FedScoop’s Madison Alder and Rebecca Heilweil recently spoke with Cox about Dark Wire, how the FBI was able to pull the operation off, if there’s a chance for something like this to happen again, the unconventional ways government can access encrypted messaging today, and much more.

Also: The National Labor Relations Board is one of the latest federal agencies to name an AI chief. David Gaston, NLRB’s assistant general counsel, will serve as the agency’s new chief artificial intelligence officer.

And, two of the biggest artificial intelligence providers have signed agreements to formally collaborate with the U.S. AI Safety Institute on research, testing and evaluation of their models. The agreements, known as memorandums of understanding, were announced last week by the AI Safety Institute, which called them “first-of-their-kind” government and industry partnerships. Under those agreements, the institute, which is housed at the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, will “receive access to major new models from each company prior to and following their public release” and collaborate with the companies on evaluation and risk mitigation.

Pete Waterman, a former Technology Modernization Fund adviser and U.S. Digital Services engineer, has been tapped as the new FedRAMP director, the General Services Administration announced in an internal email Monday. His appointment comes after he served at GSA as a senior technical adviser for TMF until earlier this year. Waterman, who officially started Monday, will report to Lauren Bracey Scheidt, assistant commissioner of the agency’s Technology and Transformation Services Office of Solutions, and work to “build on the FedRAMP team’s considerable transformation momentum, and guide program strategy for 2025 and beyond.”

The Biden administration is reporting major progress in its quest to deploy half a million public chargers by the end of the decade. The Energy Department on Tuesday said that there were now more than 192,000 public charging ports available throughout the country and that since the start of President Joe Biden’s term, the number of public EV chargers has doubled. The announcement of those milestones came as the government announced more than half a billion dollars to nearly 30 states, two tribes and Washington, D.C. to build even more charging infrastructure.

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Longtime Department of Labor CIO Gundeep Ahluwalia recently stepped away from government after more than 8 years with DOL and another four with the FDA. Leaving behind a legacy of wholesale digital transformation across Labor, Ahluwalia now takes on a role as executive vice president and chief innovation officer for government technology contractor NuAxis Innovations. Ahluwalia joins the podcast for an exit interview to recount his journey and accomplishments as Labor CIO, the keys to his success, what’s ahead for the agency now that he’s moved on and much more.

Also in the news: Jon Kosloski, a longtime national security expert in quantum optics and other novel technology areas, has officially entered the Pentagon as the next permanent director of its All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the Defense Department announced Monday.

And, the Defense Innovation Unit is on the hunt for generative artificial intelligence tools to help the U.S. military with joint planning and wargaming.

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