In the report, NRC staff recommended an AI framework for the agency to follow, which outlines approaches for AI governance, hiring new talent, upskilling existing workers, maturing the commission’s data management program and allocating resources to support AI integration into IT infrastructure. 

Additionally, NRC staff recommended that the agency invest in “foundational tools” by acquiring gen AI-based services and integrating AI in the NRC’s system for document access and management’s cognitive search technology.

“To effectively implement AI solutions, the NRC will need to develop a framework to deploy AI at the agency,” the report states. “As part of this effort, the NRC will continue to strengthen its many partnerships to stay current with the evolving state of AI. To achieve the promise of AI, leadership engagement will be essential.”

The report pushed for a collaborative approach to furthering the NRC’s use of the technology, pointing to the Chief AI Officers Council, the Responsible AI Officers Council, and other individual agency partnerships as being “essential to the agency’s response to the rapidly changing AI landscape.”

The NRC’s AI team — designated to lead this review by the agency’s executive director for operations — reported working closely with internal data scientists and subject matter experts to consider possible AI uses. Staff reviewed 61 AI use cases and identified 36 that align with tools that have AI capabilities, while the other 25 could “be addressed using non-AI solutions.”

The nuclear industry currently uses AI to “change its approach to some nonregulated activities and has expressed interest in using AI for NRC-regulated activities,” per the report, adding that the NRC is investing in AI research to identify where AI could build foundational knowledge across the agency, while still meeting its mission. 

Staff reported that the broad approach to AI research is “preparing the agency to use AI to increase staff knowledge and experience for future regulatory reviews and oversight.”

The NRC’s congressional budget justification for fiscal year 2025 carved out over $4 million for AI-related funds.

Correction: This story was updated May 13, 2024, to indicate that the nuclear industry, not the NRC, is using AI to alter its approach on some nonregulated activities.

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“Congress, if you can hear me, please fund the TMF,” federal CIO Clare Martorana said Tuesday during an event co-hosted by Venable LLP and Trend Micro. “It does something really remarkable in our community. You have a board of experts across government that are convened together to really interrogate these proposals.”

Martorana, who also serves as board chair for the TMF, said there’s been a concerted effort to explore ways for agencies to expedite tech projects. The council of chief AI officers has reviewed a plan to accelerate tech deployment within agencies by two years, Martorana said, though there’s nothing concrete to report yet. 

When it comes to work on the technology within agencies, Martorana said establishing governance, managing risk and continuing to innovate are “the three layers of that AI cake…. The risks are significant and we don’t know them all yet. We haven’t identified this whole ecosystem yet.”

Martorana said in an interview with FedScoop after the Tuesday event that she believes that as the Office of Management and Budget and GSA disclose when tech projects across the federal government are in operation, Congress will recognize that the TMF “is a wonderful funding vehicle.” She pointed to the fund assisting with national cybersecurity efforts and improving digital experience online for customers.

“All of the things that we’re using technology to help improve service delivery for the public — safely, seamlessly [and] securely,” she said.

As agencies continue to work toward implementing new tools, Martorana said in a Thursday interview with FedScoop, that CAIO council representatives are focused on establishing an AI-capable infrastructure that has the computing power and resilience to run AI. 

“Some are gonna only be working with generative AI for a really long time and that’s not going  to take a lot of compute power,” Martorana said. “We have a span across our federal agencies.” Larger agencies “taking leaps and bounds” can have a spillover effect on smaller agencies, she added, “giving our federal workforce the opportunity to participate in this technology transformation.”

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