The federal government has made large strides in setting guardrails for AI development, adoption and use in recent months, driven by the Biden administration’s executive order on AI. Despite the momentum and buzz that’s engulfed the AI adoption landscape, the federal government and agencies must be measured and responsible in their approach to leveraging AI.

That’s according to MK Palmore, director of the Office of the CISO for Google Cloud. In a recent conversation, Palmore discussed the need for more rigorous testing and standards for AI, the intersection of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, and how important it is to ensure diversity is a part of the larger conversation.

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Following the issuance of the Biden administration’s executive order on AI, OMB guidance has called for all federal CFO Act agencies to appoint chief AI officers to coordinate their agency’s use of AI, promote AI innovation and manage AI risks, while also serving as vice chairs of their agency’s AI governance boards.

GSA was one of the first agencies to name a CAIO, giving its chief data officer Zach Whitman a dual hat as its AI officer. Whitman, also a former CDO for the Census Bureau, spoke with FedScoop’s Madison Alder and Rebecca Heilweil about the new role, how he’s managing both jobs, what he hopes to get done as GSA’s first chief AI officer, and much more.

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The U.S. national security apparatus in 2021 signed on to a trilateral partnership with the United Kingdom and Australia that has come to be known as AUKUS. The partnership, as the Pentagon explains, is intended to strengthen the ability of each government to support security and defense interests, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, building on longstanding and ongoing bilateral ties. And it will promote deeper information sharing and technology sharing; and foster deeper integration of security and defense-related science, technology, industrial bases and supply chains.

Back in December, a group led by private sector defense innovation firm BMNT launched the AUKUS Defense Investors Network — a network of leading private capital investors from 300+ institutional venture capital firms, corporate venture capital (CVC) groups and family offices from the three nations. d military capabilities in cyber, AI, quantum, undersea capabilities, hypersonics, counter-hypersonics, EW and information sharing – areas where private sector investment can accelerate government investment in developing solutions to critical security challenges.

Heather Jo Richman is the founder and co-chair of the AUKUS DIN. For much of her career, Richman has served in roles serving alongside the U.S. DOD and the Intelligence Community to create ecosystems of innovators and investors to engage in national security-focused problem solving on all levels. I recently spoke with Heather from her home in the Silicon Valley area in California to learn more about the new AUKUS DIN.

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The State Department has one of the most global missions in the federal government, providing IT services at facilities in 190 nations across the world. With that, though, comes decades of tech debt that CIO Kelly Fletcher and her team at State’s Bureau of Information Resource Management are working to modernize.

Fletcher spoke recently with my colleague Wyatt Kash about that modernization journey, her top priorities in 2024 including things like Zero Trust and AI, and much more.

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Last month, FedScoop reported exclusive news from an interview with Congressman Ro Khanna, the Democratic representative from the Sillicon Valley area in California. In those stories, reporter Nihal Krishan highlighted Khanna’s new legislation that looks to hold federal agencies accountable for digital service delivery and how the congressman hopes to see workers better represented on the boards of AI companies and rank-and-file employees be sufficiently consulted when AI tools are rolled out within the government and beyond.

Now we wanted to share the entirety of that interview to highlight everything Khanna is focused on going forward in 2024. I’ll turn it over now to Nihal for his interview with Congressman Ro Khanna.

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Artificial Intelligence is playing an increasingly important role in constituent engagement for both Federal and state and local levels.

Gretchen Brainard, Principal at Deloitte Digital joins the Daily Scoop Podcast to discuss how AI is helping government agencies improve constituent engagement and improve the human experience.

While AI stole the show in 2023 in terms of top federal IT trends and themes, cybersecurity — particularly adoption of zero trust — remained an essential focus across the federal government. While agencies are taking varied paths to modernizing their cybersecurity with zero-trust architectures, the Department of Commerce has taken perhaps the most aggressive and streamlined approach in moving to zero trust as one department, rather than letting bureaus and sub-agencies plot their own course.

Andre Mendes, the outgoing CIO of the Commerce Department, spoke recently at CyberTalks giving an exclusive, deep-dive into the department’s zero trust transformation. Mendes was joined by Blair Heiserman, CISO & Network Director at NIST, and Ron Ringgold, Commerce’s Director of the Office of CyberSecurity Architecture Services, to share the department’s journey.

The White House issued an executive order on artificial intelligence at the end of October that set in place the foundation for how the U.S. hopes to lead on the development and adoption of the technology. The Office of Science and Technology Policy and its director, Arati Prabhakar, played a key role in shaping the creation of that order.

FedScoop editorial fellow Caroline Nihill spoke with Prabhakar about the E-O, OSTP’s role in it and how the U.S. government is looking to staff up to support its vision.

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Based on the draft guidance OMB published recently to modernize the FedRAMP cloud security authorization program, it appears the practice of enlisting vendors to build government-specific cloud enclaves could be a thing of the past. As it stands, the policy would push federal agencies to use the commercial public cloud services that vendors provide most any of their other customers rather than these Gov Clouds.

Joining The Daily Scoop Podcast to discuss that change, other details from the new FedRAMP guidance and much more is Jeanette Manfra, Global Director, Risk and Compliance at Google Cloud and former Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity and Communications at the Department of Homeland Security.

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The Biden administration has issued a flurry of new IT mandates and policies in recent months, from the landmark AI executive order and guidance for agencies to new directives on digital experience and modernizing FedRAMP. While it may be a lot to digest for federal CIOs and IT professionals, there’s an obvious crossover among the mandates that makes their close timing seem like more of a feature than a bug.

Here to talk about that is Jonathan Alboum, federal CTO for ServiceNow and former CIO of the Agriculture Department.

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