The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

The recently released executive order on AI from the Biden Administration drew a lot of interest from technology professionals and interest groups. Everyone is glad the White House is focused on the issue. Federal News Network's Eric White spoke with one expert observer: Barney Mccabe, the executive director of the University of Arizona's Institute for Computation and Data Enabled Insight.

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The Health and Human Services Department (HHS) has launched a new challenge. It is seeking what it calls community-level solutions for health inequities. Prizes will total a million dollars. For how it works, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with the Interim Director of the HHS office of Environmental Justice, Sharunda Buchanan.

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On this episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin:

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Going forward, the Pentagon will focus on agile artificial intelligence adoption throughout the department to keep up with the ever-evolving technology.

On Thursday, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks unveiled DoD’s new AI strategy at a press event. The strategy follows President Joe Biden’s executive order on AI earlier this week, which ordered the DoD to create a pilot program to explore how it can use AI to protect the nation’s national security systems and networks.

“Today, we’re releasing a new data, analytics and AI adoption strategy, which not only builds on DoD’s prior year AI and data strategies, but also includes updates to account for recent industry advances in federated environments, decentralized data management, generative AI and more,” Hicks said.

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The State Department is increasing its capacity to train members of the Foreign Service, and expanding the fields of expertise for its diplomatic corps, as the department embarks on its largest hiring of career diplomats in more than a decade.

The department on Monday held a dedication ceremony to commemorate the opening of a new wing of its Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the new space is meant to accommodate the hundreds of new Foreign Service officers who will train at the facility in the coming years. That’s because the department is overseeing its largest hiring surge in over a decade.

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The Navy says it’s seen huge successes in a pilot project that aims to change the decades-old, hardware-centric budgeting model Congress and the Pentagon use to plan and execute DoD’s spending into one that actually makes sense for modern information technology. But proving to lawmakers that it’s a good idea, so far, has been challenging.

The basic idea is to set aside the traditional colors of money DoD uses for various phases of the development of a big weapons platform — R&D, procurement and sustainment — and instead, let IT program managers draw from one bucket of money throughout a program’s lifecycle as they continuously improve what they’re offering.

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On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin:

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Lots of people are worried about the effects of artificial intelligence. Misused AI can cause harm. Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talk with someone who said federal contracts can provide a line of defense against improper use of AI: University of Pennsylvania law professor and federal regulation expert Cary Coglianese.

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As one of the oldest federal services, the Postal Service has changed constantly over the centuries. In fact, a lot has happened just in the 21st century. The USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) has created an online history, starting with the anthrax mailings shortly after 9/11. For details, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talks with the Research Manager at the OIG-'s Research Insights Solutions Center, John Althen.

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Skills gaps in the federal workforce remain a significant barrier to reaching better end results in agencies’ work. But across government, chief learning officers are taking on some of the challenging, long-term work to try to close those gaps.

Generally, skills gaps arise when agencies either don’t have the right skills on staff — or simply don’t have enough employees in the first place — to effectively implement federal programs. Earlier this year, the Government Accountability Office reported that more than half of the government’s biggest problem areas stem directly from mission-critical skills gaps.

Agency chief learning officers (CLOs), often behind the scenes, try to ensure an agency’s workforce has the skills it needs, particularly in mission-critical areas, such as data analytics, IT and cybersecurity. The senior-level CLO position is tasked with helping agencies first identify skills gaps, and then create a talent development strategy to try to improve those skills — including through offering training opportunities for current employees.

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