Mangala Kuppa, who took over as DOL’s chief AI officer this week after previously serving as its deputy CAIO, believes the agency has even more to be confident about when it comes to its work on the technology, possessing a “leg up” on scaling AI quickly.

In an interview with FedScoop, Kuppa pointed to DOL’s previous efforts to modernize internal operations and customer-facing services as part of the department’s journey to implement emerging technologies like AI. Having foundational building blocks and existing infrastructure, along with existing AI applications, has made it “easier” for the agency to scale up, she said. 

“It’s not a ‘big bang’ approach,” said Kuppa, who also serves as DOL’s chief technology officer. “Another aspect that we take very seriously in modernizing is [to] take this opportunity to not just update the technology, but also take this opportunity to re-engineer the business process to help the public.” 

Kuppa pointed to an internal shared services initiative that designated the agency’s Office of the Chief Information Officer to be a “shared services provider for all Departmental IT services.”  That process, Kuppa said, has allowed the department to keep an inventory of all systems and technologies and understand where the legacy systems or opportunities for improvement might exist.

“Using that methodology, we’ve been looking at all high-risk systems, because maybe the technology is very legacy and outdated,” Kuppa said. “We’ve been using that methodology to start those modernization initiatives.”

By considering the age of the technology, the operations burden, security vulnerabilities, regulation compliance and other parameters, DOL came up with a methodology that scores each mission system to determine if it is a candidate for modernization. The agency then looks at the scores on a consistent basis and revises based on new information that becomes available.

These systems can be major: the DOL’s Employment and Training Administration, for example, which provides labor certifications when a company files for hiring an immigrant workforce, was scored for modernization.

“Being an immigrant, I wasn’t aware DOL had a hand in my immigration journey there,” Kuppa said. 

The Technology Modernization Fund has played an “instrumental” role in the department “finding the resources to modernize,” Kuppa said.

She gave the example of using TMF funds to expedite temporary visa applications, which is expected to save 45 days of cycle time for processing labor certification applications.

According to a case study on the TMF site, that project contributed to $1.9 million in annual cost savings, and a key part of the innovation allowed the application forms to auto-populate with the previous year’s information.

“Usually all immigrants eventually start filing for permanent visa applications,” Kuppa said. “Again, you have to repeat the process of labor certification, and so we had two different systems not communicating with each other.”

For Kuppa, modernization is ultimately an exercise in reimagining where new technologies can ultimately be most helpful.

“We have great partnership, we work very closely with our programs and then we have these dialogues every day, in terms of the system’s development lifecycle,” she said. “And that’s how we approach modernization.”

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With a healthy dose of skepticism formed through years of protecting digital infrastructure from advanced threats, many federal cybersecurity practitioners have significant concerns about AI, viewing it as a technology that needs corralling. That’s especially true for large language models and other data sources, they say. 

“It’s garbage in, garbage out,” said Paul Blahusch, CISO for the Department of Labor. “If our adversary can poison that data, well, we’re going to start getting the wrong information back out from our artificial intelligence. It’s going to say, ‘Day is night, night is day. Black is white, white is black.’ And are we going to just take that and say, ‘Oh well, that must be what it says because the AI said so?’”

Speaking during an Advanced Technology Academic Research Center webinar last week, Blahusch and other government and industry cyber experts painted AI as a technology that’s not entirely new, having found itself in the cultural zeitgeist thanks to ChatGPT. But it’s one that can and will be put to better use.

“I’m sure that my … antivirus [software] has been using some form of AI and machine learning for a long time,” Blahusch said. “The whole idea of artificial intelligence within cyber tooling has been there for a while — all our threat intel types of analyses use some of that. But we can certainly take it to the next level.”

That next level should come in the form of reducing burdens on the federal cyber workforce, Blahusch said. When it comes to data analysis, those employees can focus on “higher-value work” if AI systems are positioned to handle the rest. 

“I don’t have all the resources to have 100 people looking at streams,” he said. “I need technology to help me with that and have my limited number of people do the things that human beings need to do.”

Jennifer R. Franks, director of the Government Accountability Office’s Center for Enhanced Cybersecurity, Information Technology & Cybersecurity Team, acknowledged during the panel that she’s “not really an AI enthusiast,” but as a cyber professional who also works in privacy and data protection, the technology is “here to stay.” 

New uses of automation in government work are necessary given staffing shortages, but humans will still play a critical role since emerging technologies like AI also bring on additional vulnerabilities, she said. 

“We can’t be naive to the risk-based approaches that we have to take, making sure that we still have human decision-making. You know that is going to help us in managing some of the complexities,” Franks said. “We have to make sure that … we’re managing some of the controls around the tools and technologies and the machine learning aspect of the codes that are going into the algorithms, [so they] are not compromised.”

As a former federal IT manager now on the industry side, Youssef Takhssaiti said government cyber officials need to embrace AI, leveraging the technology’s ability to analyze network traffic, detect anomalies, automate responses to standard attack scenarios and myriad other defensive techniques. 

But procurement officers also “have to be very careful when it comes to adopting or purchasing” AI products, according to Takhssaiti, a Treasury Department and Consumer Product Safety Commission alum who’s working on a PhD in artificial intelligence. 

“Everyone is focused on speed to market — how can I get my product and application out to the market and consumers,” said Takhssaiti, now global GRC director for Aqua Security. “Before adopting any [AI products], two key things to focus on: Are they a vulnerability for you or as vulnerability-free as they could be? And what do they do with my data? Is it being used to retrain these models?”

Whether it’s continuing to embrace zero-trust architectures, dabbling in AI or looking out for the next big defensive thing in cyber, federal security professionals agree that threat protection strategies need to take an “all of the above” approach while also leaning on tried-and-true mitigation methods.  

“We’re still actively deploying and implementing the initiatives as ZTA across our various environments. But now we have AI, right?” Franks said. “But we cannot still forget … the basic cyber hygiene strategies. … And then going forward, we have to redesign and strengthen where it is we need to go so that we can stay ahead of the vulnerability curve.”

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The order’s requirements span the tech talent surge to guidance for various types of AI. Announcements from this deadline include guidance on generative AI tools for hiring, a safety and security board focused on AI and a new generative AI guidance for federal purchasers. 

The White House credited federal agencies with the completion of requirements for the deadline, and included announcements for requirements in the executive order that were due at a later date. Additionally, the executive branch reported that “agencies also progressed on other work tasked by the E.O. over longer timeframes.”

Here are five takeaways from the White House’s 180-day announcement:

1. The AI talent surge’s progress report

The AI and Tech Talent Task Force reported a 288% increase in AI job applications via a combination of agency hiring, the U.S. Digital Corps, the U.S. Digital Service and the presidential innovation fellows program. 

Additionally, the task force offered 10 recommendations throughout the federal government for “further increasing AI capacity.”

The task force recommends institutionalizing the U.S. Digital Corps and other technology recruitment programs, enhancing user experience on USAJOBS through the updating of digital service capabilities, exploring a talent exchange engagement with foreign partners that are also looking to invest in AI-related talent and more. 

The report calls on Congress to grant agencies the ability to use flexible hiring authorities for the AI-talent surge, while also offering pay incentives and support for rotational practices. 

Significantly, the task force reported that the Office of Personnel Management has “developed a legislative proposal” that aims to enhance compensation flexibilities. That proposal “has been transmitted to Congress.”

2. New actions from the Department of Energy

The DOE announced several AI-related actions at the deadline that focused on both cybersecurity and environmental concerns, including a new website that exhibits agency-developed AI tools and models. 

The agency’s Office of Critical and Emerging Technologies released a report addressing the potential AI has to “significantly enhance how we manage the [electric] grid” and how climate change’s effect on the environment “will require a substantial increase in the rate of modernization and decarbonization” of the grid. The report offers considerations for how large language models might assist compliance with federal permitting, how AI could enhance resilience and more. 

DOE has also announced a $13 million investment to build AI-powered tools to improve the siting and permitting of clean energy infrastructure for a new VoltAlc initiative. Significantly, the agency announced that it is establishing a working group to make recommendations by June on meeting the energy demands for AI and data center infrastructure. 

Additionally, the agency’s Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response (CESER)  unit worked with energy sector partners — with support from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — to create an interim assessment to identify opportunities and potential risks regarding AI use within the sector.

3. Department of Labor guidance on AI and tech-based hiring systems

The DOL was six months early on meeting its requirement to publish guidance for contractors regarding non-discrimination in talent acquisition that involves AI and other technology-based hiring programs. 

The report points to the use of AI systems as having the potential to continue discrimination and unlawful bias. It requires federal contractors to cooperate with the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) by providing requested information on their AI systems in order to prevent discrimination.

Contractors are not insulated from the risk of violating equal employment opportunity or obligations if they use automated systems, the agency states in the report. OFCCP also noted obligations related to AI with regard to  investigations into compliance evaluations and complaints  to identify if a contractor is abiding by nondiscrimination requirements. 

While OFCCP reported that it does not endorse products or issue compliance certifications, it does encourage federal contractors to be transparent about AI use in the hiring process and with employment decisions, while nd safeguarding private information of all involved parties. 

4. USDA’s framework for state, local, tribal and territorial (SLTT) public administrative use of AI

The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a framework for SLTTs to use AI to administer the agency’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) programs, which include school breakfast, summer food service, emergency food assistance and more. 

The guidance states that FNS will work with SLTTs for risk management, and lays out four categories of risk for AI usage in regard to the service, ranging from low to high.

USDA recommends a “human in the loop” in AI implementation for risk mitigation. The framework recommends that  staffers who provide human oversight for AI-enabled functions “should receive sufficient training” to assess AI models or functions for accurate outputs. 

The agency also outlines how other uses of the technology may be “rights-impacting” or “safety-impacting,” as designated by FNS.

5. A framework for nucleic acid synthesis screening

The Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Science and Technology Council and the Fast Track Action Committee for Synthetic Nucleic Acid Procurement Screening released a framework to encourage synthetic nucleic acid providers to implement screening mechanisms to prevent the misuse of AI for “engineering dangerous biological materials.” 

This guidance builds on a Department of Health and Human Services strategy document released in October 2023. 

OSTP said in a release that the National Institute of Standards and Technology “will further support implementation of this framework” through engagement with industry entities to “develop technical standards for screening.”

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The TMF will provide NASA with nearly $6 million to automate network management, standardize network configurations and modernize legacy infrastructure across all of the space agency’s locations, according to a press release from the General Services Administration. The funds would also allow NASA to implement cybersecurity requirements, as the agency’s interactions with sensitive data makes it a “prime target for hackers and other entities,” the press release stated.

The DOL, meanwhile, will use $42 million in TMF-provided funds to undertake a “significant” modernization effort that would replace the agency’s Integrated Federal Employee Compensation System, or iFECS, with a cloud-based system that utilizes automation technologies, according to the release. This would streamline processes that injured and ill workers interact with and further protect those services. 

The GSA noted that the DOL is looking to enhance the efficiency of services and make them less prone to “cybersecurity, operational and financial risk.”

“These TMF investments demonstrate the diversity and reach of the TMF in driving innovation and impact forward for the American public,” Clare Martorana, the federal CIO and TMF Board chair, said in the statement. “From strengthening NASA spacecraft control to supporting injured and ill workers through the DOL’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs.”

NASA is facing “significant” security threats that are attributed to the value of agency data, per the release, and the TMF funds will enable the space agency to accelerate cybersecurity and operational upgrades two years earlier than originally anticipated. This would also support the collection of additional telemetry data to align with federal cybersecurity mandates.

Similarly, the DOL is looking to bolster data security with the funds due to the sensitive information surrounding federal employee health records and annual claims. The shift to a new, cloud-based system “promises” to reduce claim adjudication times and enhance customer interactions.

Further, the agency reported that its “aging” infrastructure and “complex” workflows were responsible for hindered case management for workers that are ill and/or injured.

The latest round of investments follows the recently released appropriations package, which clawed back $100 million from the TMF, deflating support for government IT modernization projects that the fund received through the American Rescue Plan.

“Unlocking the potential of government through technology modernization requires strategic investment and a commitment to driving meaningful change,” Larry Bafundo, acting TMF executive director, said in the release. “TMF is pivotal in enabling federal agencies to invest in their own ability to adapt, evolve, and better serve their citizens in a rapidly changing world.”

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The new government website evaluation tool, which is called “gov metadata,” was created by Luke Fretwell and his son, Elias, as part of the Civic Hacking Agency, a project focused on technology for the public good. The system works by scanning government websites and then analyzing the presence of metatags, which can help search engines and other portions of the web to interpret aspects of an online page. A metatag might be a reference to a title or help boost a page’s presence on social media; based on the number of metatags present, the project gives a “score” to each website. 

The point of the project, Fretwell told FedScoop, was to show how well the government was performing on certain important aspects of web page operations. “When it comes to AI, and metadata and data, and customer experience and digital service — these three elements of it — there’s some fundamental things,” he said. (Editor’s note: Fretwell helped establish FedScoop’s digital and editorial operations in its early years, but he is not a current employee of Scoop News Group). 

The stakes can be high, notes Beau Woods, the founder and CEO of the cybersecurity company Stratigos Security. “If a website doesn’t set [metadata tags] up, or doesn’t set them up correctly, it can leave citizens wondering what the site is about [and] which one is the legitimate site,” he said. “It leaves room for other unofficial websites to go to the top of search rankings, and to be the first stop for the citizens when they’re browsing.” 

The U.S. government appears to be on par with other organizations, like academic institutions and nonprofits, that have limited budgets for IT and competing priorities, Woods added.  Importantly, the project wasn’t able to grade websites that its systems couldn’t properly scan.

According to the gov metadata tracker, federal agencies vary widely in how well they’re performing on metatags. Notably, a digital changelog established by the project shows that some government webpages were incorporating new metadata amid FedScoop’s reporting. 

An Office of Management and Budget spokesperson told FedScoop that the agency is working with implementation partners and relevant interagency bodies to expand “best practices on search engine optimization and the use of metadata.” 

“The use of metadata and other related search engine optimization practices plays an important role in ensuring that members of the public can easily discover government information and services via third-party search engines,” the spokesperson said. ”OMB acknowledges the opportunity for agencies to more consistently use metadata as they continually optimize their websites and web content for search. OMB, alongside key implementation partners, continues to support agencies in this and other related efforts to improve digital experiences.” 

Still, Fretwell says the initiative raises the question of what requirements exist around this aspect of federal website upkeep. “What’s the standard that the government is going to adopt for using metadata and actually using it [and] using those things?” Fretwell said in an interview with FedScoop. “Because it’s so varied.”

FedScoop was unable to identify specific metadata tag requirements for federal websites, but the topic has certainly been referenced before. Older government documents, including a 2016 memo focused on federal agency websites and digital services and a 2015 memo for .gov domains, have generally emphasized the importance of search engine optimization or metatags. Digital.gov mentions that standard metadata should be tagged and Search.gov, a government search engine, has metadata recommendations, too.

A memo issued by the Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer last fall — which provided further guidance for following the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act and improving government websites — points to metadata several times. The memo says that agencies should use “rich, descriptive metadata” and use “descriptive metadata in commonly parsed fields” like “meta element tags.” It also states that agencies should use metadata tags to correctly note the timeliness of a page. The OMB spokesperson pointed to this memo and its emphasis on search optimization.

Though the scanner run by the Civic Hacking Agency appears to have a broader scope, a website scanning tool run by the General Services Administration designed to measure performance of federal websites picks up some aspects of website metadata. (The GSA explains in its GitHub documentation that it focuses on collecting data that is helpful to specific stakeholders). 

That GSA initiative also shows varied performance — for example, whether an agency is using a viewport tag, which helps resize pages so they’re more easily viewable on mobile devices. 

“GSA continues to prioritize SEO and accessibility best practices when curating and improving metadata,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement. In reference to the 2023 OMB memo, the spokesperson noted that GSA “continues to work with its web teams to optimize our content for findability and discoverability” and “focuses on metadata as well as things like improved on-site search, information architecture, user experience design, cross references, etc.” 

“Search.gov recommends metadata that supports foundational SEO techniques as well as our metadata-driven search filtering feature,” the GSA spokesperson added. 

In response to questions, the Federal Chief Data Officers Council said that while it had explored implications of metadata through its data inventory working group, the group hadn’t “targeted federal website metadata specifically.” The CDO Council added that it has yet to review the Civic Hacking Agency’s report. 

Agencies respond 

In response to FedScoop questions, several Chief Financial Officers Act agencies said they’ve investigated or will take steps to improve their metadata practices. A State Department spokesperson said the agency was “pleased” with some of its primary page grades but would also review the findings from the project, while the Environmental Protection Agency said that, after reviewing its score, it fixed all of the metadata issues identified.  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission also added its missing metatags to its site templates after FedScoop reached out.

Similarly, a spokesperson for the National Science Foundation said that it would meet metatag requirements “in the near future,” that missing tags will be tracked and incorporated into upcoming releases, and that the agency was assessing its compliance with Dublin Core and Open Graph standards, two specific types of metatags. 

The Agriculture Department said it would research whether its metadata were being pulled correctly. The agency also said it was updating its metadata creation process, including evaluating the accuracy of automatically generated tokens and updating its page creation workflow to emphasize page metadata. 

“We’re considering a cyclical review process for existing content to ensure metadata stays current with page updates. These changes will be passed down to all USDA website owners who manage their own content and we will coordinate with them to ensure the correct processes are in place,” an agency spokesperson told FedScoop. “The nature of our content management system is to not use XML content formats which impedes metadata from being included for each page. We are working to repair this process.” 

Some agencies pushed back on the findings. Terrence Hayes, press secretary at the  Department of Veterans Affairs, said it wasn’t apparent why certain metatags were chosen by the project, or which of the agency’s thousands of pages were being scanned, but added that the department was “reviewing the findings from the referenced report to better understand where gaps may exist.” 

Similarly, the Social Security Administration — which initially received an F — said some of the metatag issues identified were unnecessary but would implement changes to improve its score and meet Search.gov guidelines. (After a new scan by the site, the agency now has an A.)

Darren Lutz, press secretary for the agency, said that it instituted a new content management system for Social Security’s primary customer-facing pages and that each “new section or page that we launch features meticulously crafted metatags that summarize the content in clear, accessible language, ensuring optimization for search engines.”

“All new content will convey the noted metadata improvements,” Lutz added. “In the past year, we have launched four major new site sections, redirecting significant percentages of public web traffic from our legacy implementation to these modern and optimized web pages on our new platform.”

The Education Department — which has several websites managed by different entities — said that Civic Hacking Agency’s scores for its Ed.gov and G5 domains don’t reflect work being done on those sites, but also pushed back on how the tool evaluated its StudentAid.gov site, pointing to, for example, the description and robots field. While the Education Department acknowledged that some tags should be added to its NationsReportCard.gov page, a spokesperson said the tool was picking up archival pages and “content tagging isn’t feasible” for certain types of applications on that site. 

The Education Department plans to launch a new Ed.gov this coming summer, an agency spokesperson added. Meanwhile, its G5 domain for grant management “will be upgraded to significantly improve its usability, analytics and reporting, using machine-readable metadata and searchable content,” the spokesperson said. 

Several agencies, including the Departments of Commerce and Transportation, did not respond to requests for comment. Meanwhile, some agencies, like NASA, celebrated the scores they received. Notably, the space agency last year launched two new major websites: nasa.gov and science.nasa.gov. The agency has also been engaged in a multi-year web modernization project. 

“One of the driving goals of this major effort has been to improve the findability and search engine authority of these core sites through strong metadata tooling and training, and we believe this contributed to our report card score,” said Jennifer Dooren, the deputy news chief at NASA headquarters. 

Overall, the project appears to provide further incentive to improve site metadata. Several agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Labor, noted the importance of the Civic Hacking Agency’s tool. 

“The feedback from the ‘gov metadata’ scoring system is invaluable to us as it helps gauge our performance in implementing basic metadata principles,” said Ryan Honick, a public affairs specialist at the Department of Labor. “It acts as a catalyst for ongoing improvement, driving us to refine our strategies for making our websites as accessible and user-friendly as possible.” 

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The Office of Management and Budget, Office of Personnel Management, General Services Administration, National Science Foundation, and Department of Labor indicated they’re on track with requirements that were set to be completed within 30, 45, and 60 days of the Oct. 30 order (EO 14110). Keeping up with the early deadlines, researchers told FedScoop, could be important for actions down the line.

Most of the nine initial deadlines for agencies, according to a Bipartisan Policy Center timeline of the order, focused on actions involving federal government AI use and talent. Sabine Neschke, a senior policy analyst for BPC’s business and technology team, said “that’s a specific push to show that the government has enough AI talent in order to actually implement the rest of the executive order.” 

Fulfilling the early deadlines adequately could also have a “domino effect” on later deadlines that were dependent on those actions, said David Evan Harris, a chancellor’s public scholar at UC Berkeley who researches AI. The deadlines aren’t “just picked randomly, they’re picked because they build upon one another,” Harris said.

AI talent surge

Among those early actions, the federal Chief AI Officers Council met Dec. 12 for its initial meeting where it “focused on the form and functions of the Council, including how to consistently and successfully implement EO 14110, OMB’s draft policy on AI governance, innovation, and risk management, and the National AI Talent Surge,” an OMB spokesperson said in an emailed statement. 

That meeting, which was required to be held in the first 90 days after issuing the order, included representatives from all Chief Financial Officer Act agencies “as well as a range of representatives from small agencies,” the spokesperson said. 

Eventually, agency chief AI officers — a position outlined by the order — will represent agencies on that council. While having a CAIO isn’t required until after OMB finalizes its corresponding guidance on the executive order, many agencies have already indicated they’ve designated their official.

Efforts to plan a talent surge and convene a task force on AI talent, which were set to be completed in the first 45 days, are also on track. An administration official told FedScoop in an email that “the AI and Tech Talent Task Force is very much underway and has been meeting regularly.”

An OMB spokesperson also said the “White House has completed planning for the AI Talent Surge, including identifying priority mission areas to which we plan to surge AI talent, types of talent needed for AI EO implementation and regulatory activities, and accelerated hiring pathways for this talent.”

OPM, which is also part of the talent surge efforts, indicated it was on track for its deliverables. Those include its recent authorization of direct hire authority and excepted service appointments to support the AI order. The order required OPM to conduct an evidence-based review of the need for “hiring and workplace flexibility” within 60 days of the order, including the need for direct-hire authority for AI positions. 

An OPM spokesperson told FedScoop in an email that the new direct-hire authority gives agencies the ability to “perform work directly associated with implementing” the executive order and “allows the federal government to remain competitive with the private sector in recruiting AI talent.”

DOL, meanwhile, issued a request for information required under the order to help the agency identify AI, STEM-related, and other occupations “for which there is an insufficient number of ready, willing, able, and qualified United States workers.” 

Funding and research

Other early actions focused on boosting government funding for AI and improving access to resources for AI research.

The board that oversees the GSA’s Technology Modernization Fund, for example, was required to consider prioritizing funding AI projects in the government within the first 30 days of the order. A GSA spokesperson said the body is exploring that idea and plans to share guidelines for AI proposals early this year.

“All AI proposals would require senior executive support and must include user testing, a risk mitigation plan, and clear metrics to evaluate success,” the GSA spokesperson said in an email. The spokesperson also encouraged agencies to reach out to the TMF’s program management office “as soon as they have ideas.”

NSF, for its part, indicated that it received proposals, as required under the order, from government counterparts identifying agency resources that could be used for the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) pilot program, which is often described by the agency and others as “a shared national research infrastructure” for AI. The agency also plans to make that information public.

“We are working closely with a wide range of federal partners who submitted proposals for how their agencies can contribute to the pilot per the direction in the executive order,” an NSF spokesperson said in an email. “We expect to make the full breadth of those contributions public upon the launch of the pilot in January.”

While most agencies indicated they were on track, the Department of Transportation didn’t respond to FedScoop requests for comment on its 30-day deadline. That action required Secretary Pete Buttigieg to direct the department’s “Nontraditional and Emerging Transportation Technology (NETT) Council to assess the need for information, technical assistance, and guidance regarding the use of AI in transportation.”

What’s next?

The next deadlines, which are coming up at the end of January, are more diverse in terms of focus, including actions related to AI safety and security; promoting innovation and competition; advancing equality and civil rights; and protections, according to BPC’s timeline.

Those include launching the NAIRR pilot, issuing proposed regulations addressing foreign malicious cyber actor use of U.S. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) products, and assessing AI cybersecurity risks in critical infrastructure sectors.

Going forward BPC’s Neschke said she’ll be watching for the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s work to develop a companion resource to its AI Risk Management Framework focused on generative AI and information about how AI is impacting the workforce. She also said she’ll be watching Congress to see what actions they take related to the order.

“While the executive order does set off a lot of great momentum, it only holds so much weight just because it can be overturned,” Neschke said. “And we’re really looking at what Congress will do next — whether they will put out legislation to provide more durability on these initiatives.”

Rebecca Heilweil and Caroline Nihill contributed to this article.

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Charlier’s new role comes as agencies across the federal government have been designating their CAIOs following President Joe Biden’s October AI executive order. That order requires agencies to designate such an official after the corresponding Office of Management and Budget guidance is finalized, but many agencies are getting a head start. 

So far, 14 of the 24 Chief Financial Officer Act agencies have named a CAIO.

As CAIO, Charlier will be responsible for coordinating the department’s use of AI, promoting AI innovations, and managing risks associated with the technology. DOL’s public inventory for AI, which is required of agencies, includes 18 use cases for the technology, including chatbots, document processing, and audio transcription. 

Charlier was already handling the role of responsible AI official, which was required by a Trump administration executive order on AI.

According to his DOL biography, Charlier “has more than 30 years of leadership and transformational experience in the military, private, and public sectors initiating and implementing enterprise-wide, IT capabilities and strategies.” Charlier has been at DOL for more than 17 years, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Rebecca Heilweil contributed to this article.

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The new program, called the OpenUI Initiative, aims to promote modular unemployment insurance technology. The idea is that “states can choose to use or adapt software developed by others or make software they’ve created on their own available for others to use via the platform,” the DOL website explains. 

The quality of software used to facilitate unemployment payments has remained an ongoing frustration, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic, when many people were supposed to be receiving enhanced benefits. The goal now is to change states’ approach to procuring UI systems, the agency said. 

Next steps for the Open UI Initiative program include the creation of a technical advisory group by the UI Information Technology Support Center (UI ITSC) — a body held under the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) that’s also assisting the DOL. Once that group has formed an “Open UI framework,” the ITSC is supposed to begin helping states and vendors source software. Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social Impact & Innovation is also involved in the effort. 

The hope, the DOL press release says, is for early adopters to contribute to or use the system before the end of next year. 

The announcement comes after the DOL revealed in May a new IT modernization strategy for these systems. That strategy highlighted several goals, including helping states with the implementation of Login.gov credentials, replacing legacy IT systems, and deploying robotic process automation. 

Earlier this fall, the department also said it would award more than $200 million to improve state UI systems. That money is supposed to help states segment their UI systems into “smaller components” that can more easily be replaced. 

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The Technology in the Parks Act of 2023, introduced by Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., aims to boost innovation, increase technology training and decrease inequality through multiple relevant internet programs.

“I believe that this legislation aligns with the nation’s commitment to fostering innovation, education, and community development,” Davis said in a statement. “This legislation, once passed, will contribute to building a more technologically inclusive society, ensuring that the benefits of advancements reach all corners of our community.”

The bill proposes an expansion of the Federal Communications Commission’s E-rates internet program to include local parks, which Davis said is key to bringing broadband access to outdoor community spaces, similar to the existing coverage for schools and libraries.

The FCC’s E-rate program helps schools and libraries across the country gain access to affordable broadband internet and is the government’s largest educational technology program.

The legislation would include local parks in the U.S. General Services Computers for Learning Program, providing access to computer equipment that federal agencies have identified as excess property and enabling technological advancements and digital literacy in those areas.

The third piece of the legislation would require the Labor Department to establish a program to offer grants for technology training programs in local parks, supporting skill development and ensuring that local parks that host such programs are eligible for E-Rate support.

The legislation “is a crucial step in bridging the technological divide and promoting education and skill development in our communities,” Davis said. “By extending E-Rate support to local parks, we empower these spaces to become hubs for technology training, creating opportunities for skill acquisition in areas such as coding, cyber security, digital manufacturing, and more.”

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But getting some of those cybersecurity priorities over the finish line in the ensuing two-plus years would require additional funding that DOL has yet to see. Speaking during a panel discussion at last week’s CyberTalks, Blahusch said it was “somewhat disappointing” that the agency “didn’t seem to get the traction in appropriations” that he envisioned. 

Blahusch said the Office of Management and Budget was “very helpful and supportive of us putting in our budget requests,” but tough decisions were made when it came to prioritizing the executive order’s callouts. 

“One thing that we saw was potentially going to cost us quite a bit of money was the enhanced logging, of being able to … collect and store all that data that was asked for by the executive order and the companion OMB guidance,” Blahusch said. “And it’s been tough because we haven’t gotten any additional appropriations.”

Per executive order 14028, the OMB director and the Commerce and Homeland Security secretaries were charged with formulating policies for agencies to “establish requirements for logging, log retention, and log management, which shall ensure centralized access and visibility for the highest level security operations center of each agency.”

Logs were to be “protected by cryptographic methods” and “periodically verified against the hashes throughout their retention.” Data retention was to be aligned with corresponding privacy laws and regulations.

Though Blahusch hasn’t had access to the type of budget he envisioned following the EO’s issuance, he said it’s been “a nice challenge to be able to determine how to do these things with either resources that we have or resources that we need to pull together.”

Zero-trust architecture, for example, was something that the DOL “brought more to the front burner” following the executive order, Blahusch said. 

Cherilyn Pascoe, director of NIST’s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, meanwhile, said during Thursday’s panel that her department has also focused on zero trust in the wake of EO 14028, in addition to updating the standards and guidelines for the development and use of secure software. 

“We’re working in collaboration with industry, with other government agencies and with academia” on various modernization efforts, Pascoe said. And the NCCoE is “making sure that we have foresight into future issues several years down the road so that when we’re ready to kind of set policy and standards, we have this kind of underpinning of R&D.”

From Blahusch’s perspective, even though the appropriations process fell short of what he fought for, EO 14028 has been an unmitigated win for his work at the DOL.

“I do think the executive order was great to sort of get that entire federal community on the same page,” Blahusch said. “Pushing in the same direction, [getting] some economies of scale going, working with [the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency] on common solutions, [and] working with OMB on common ways to measure the progress.”

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