Federal CIO Council Archives | FedScoop https://fedscoop.com/tag/federal-cio-council/ FedScoop delivers up-to-the-minute breaking government tech news and is the government IT community's platform for education and collaboration through news, events, radio and TV. FedScoop engages top leaders from the White House, federal agencies, academia and the tech industry both online and in person to discuss ways technology can improve government, and to exchange best practices and identify how to achieve common goals. Tue, 02 Jan 2024 19:26:58 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.4 https://fedscoop.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/01/cropped-fs_favicon-3.png?w=32 Federal CIO Council Archives | FedScoop https://fedscoop.com/tag/federal-cio-council/ 32 32 Federal government begins advertising new cyber rotation program https://fedscoop.com/government-cyber-rotation-program/ Mon, 04 Dec 2023 19:00:00 +0000 https://fedscoop.com/?p=75078 Roughly 65 positions that are part of the new Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program are currently open through the Office of Personnel Management.

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Federal cyber workers can now apply for positions through a rotational program that allows them to temporarily work at another agency. The objective is to spread cyber expertise across the federal government. 

More than 50 postings across 12 agencies are currently open on the Office of Personnel Management’s Open Opportunities platform. Open roles include cyber defense incident responder, IT project manager, and cybersecurity specialist, and range from six- to 12-month details. The postings represent roughly 65 rotational opportunities, as some are for more than one position, an OPM spokesperson said in an email.

“I think it’s really a win-win for the agency and the employee,” Jason Barke, deputy associate director for strategic workforce planning on OPM’s Workforce Policy and Innovation team, said of the program. In an interview with FedScoop last week, Barke said that employees who participate in the program could benefit by learning new skills and experiencing what it’s like to work at a different agency. 

The Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program was authorized by a bill signed into law by President Joe Biden in June 2022, and is intended to advance federal cyber employees’ careers and promote integration and coordination of cyber practices between and within agencies. 

The launch of the program comes as the Biden administration focuses on bolstering the cyber workforce in the U.S., including within the government. Strengthening the federal cyber workforce was among the four pillars of a national strategy the administration released in July.

OPM plans to work with the Chief Information Officers Council, the Chief Human Capital Officers Council, and the White House Office of the National Cyber Director to let people know about the available positions, Barke said. They plan to get people started in rotations in January.

The hope is that agencies will “be excited and let their employees or cyber employees go on these rotations and go out and start gaining this experience,” Barke said.

An employee is eligible for the program only if they are already in a “cyber-coded” agency position, have been approved for participation, were rated at least “fully successful” on their most recent performance review, and have the right clearance level required for the position they’d like to rotate into, according to March guidance from OPM.

The program will also give OPM a look into “where agencies’ needs are, and maybe where we can start thinking about, ‘how do we have more of a long-term strategy to support them on some of these areas that they may have needs?’” Barke said.

One possible hurdle is the workload that rotating workers might leave behind at their original agency, especially amid an ongoing shortage of cyber professionals within the federal government. 

Barke acknowledged that as a “challenge” and suggested that agencies could swap, have another person rotate in to replace that person, or balance the workload between other people in the office. 

It’s a “little bit of a tradeoff,” said Barke, who acknowledged that some workloads may need to increase to make sure that an employee can participate in a rotation. “But then what they bring back, hopefully, you know, will be that enhancement to the agency.”

As far as location, it appears most of the positions available currently have a virtual option. Barke said that’s something they left up to the agencies. 

Going forward, the length of the rotations could be more varied. While the law says the rotations should be for six months to a year, Barke said there could be flexibility for shorter positions if needed. “There’s still a lot of value even in shorter or longer rotations that, you know, we would just need to work out between the two agencies,” he said.

Eventually, OPM is required to put together a report analyzing the efficacy of the program, according to the original legislation. 

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Inventories to be ‘more central part’ of understanding how agencies use AI under White House guidance https://fedscoop.com/ai-inventories-more-central-under-white-house-guidance/ Tue, 07 Nov 2023 16:08:03 +0000 https://fedscoop.com/?p=74489 The White House is specifically seeking input on what should be made public in agency AI use case inventories as part of the Office of Management and Budget’s new guidance.

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Federal agencies’ artificial intelligence use case inventories are intended to become a more expansive resource for the government and public under new draft guidance from the Office of Management and Budget.

The White House is trying to “expand the use case inventory” in terms of information being reported and the function of the disclosure as “a repository of public documentation,” Conrad Stosz, director of artificial intelligence in the Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer, told FedScoop in an interview.

“We expect that the inventory will become a more central part of the way that the OMB and that the public have insight into what agencies are doing with AI,” Stosz said. 

The annual public inventories, which were initially required under a Trump-era executive order, have so far lacked consistency and received criticism from academics and advocates as a result. A major 2022 Stanford report detailed compliance issues with the inventories in the first year of reporting and FedScoop has continued to report on inconsistencies in those disclosures.

The government has currently disclosed more than 700 uses of AI, according to a consolidated list of use cases posted to AI.gov last month and a similar list compiled by FedScoop. 

New requirements for the inventories outlined in OMB’s draft guidance, which details how federal agencies should carry out President Joe Biden’s sweeping executive order on AI, included adding information on safety- or rights-impacting uses, the risks those uses pose and how they are managing those risks. 

Efforts to expand the inventory are important for transparency about how AI is being used to make decisions that impact the public’s lives and “to create trust that the government is using AI responsibly,” Stosz said. 

During the comment period on the new guidance, Stosz said the White House wants to hear from people on what should be included, while keeping in mind that not every question can be asked and there needs to be a degree of prioritization to “maintain the accuracy and usefulness” of the disclosures.

As the disclosure process is largely for the purpose of transparency, he said “it’s something that’s critical for us to have public input into how we go about collecting and publishing this information.” 

Guidance goal

The inventories — which are required of all agencies, except for the Department of Defense, the intelligence community agencies and independent regulatory agencies — were initially intended to create public transparency, give agencies insight into other government uses of the technology and provide the White House with information about current uses to better craft its guidance.

“When we were developing OMB’s draft guidance on AI, the breadth of the use cases in the inventory I think really showed how diverse federal agencies uses of AI are, and how OMB’s policy can’t really treat them all in exactly the same way,” Stosz said.

When asked about whether there were concerning use cases reported in the inventories, Stosz said that there weren’t any individually that he would point to, but underscored how AI’s potential to not meet expectations, such as through embedding historical biases, are significant to its future use in government missions. 

“It’s certainly not our intent to say that these are bad use cases, but that in order for them to be relied upon to help execute the central government missions, that they need to have some degree of greater safeguards in place,” Stosz said. “And that the risks involved and the ways in which agencies are managing those risks need to be made as transparent as possible for the public to ensure trust and accountability.”

Since AI can be used in myriad ways — including within sensitive contexts that interact with protecting human life such as the Transportation Security Agency’s use of facial recognition technology at airport security checkpoints — OMB has focused on establishing guardrails but has not yet ruled out the potential to ban uses. 

“We’ve considered many ideas and the document is still out for public comment; it’s not finalized, so no approach has been set in stone yet,” Stosz said. “Banning is currently not the approach that the draft takes, because we really want to focus on establishing safeguards that help you mitigate these risks and empower agencies to use AI in ways that are most critical.”

Stosz said, however, that the final decision to use AI, subject to processes and transparency laid out in OMB’s guidance, is determined by federal agencies. 

Inventory evolution

As AI evolves and the government’s use of the technology does too, Stosz said “we’re seeing that some aspects of the inventory clearly need to change and evolve with it.” 

For example, there is currently increasing interest in generative AI, Stosz said, adding that the White House is eager to work with agencies as uses change.

The Department of Energy previously told FedScoop that it was able to create a more comprehensive inventory following “enhanced” guidance from the White House for the second year of reporting. Its 2023 inventory was roughly four times larger than the previous year and appeared to include very few, if any, of the uses reported the previous year.

Stosz said conversations with agencies led to improvements in the 2023 guidance for inventories. The feedback they’ve heard in those conversations includes requests for clarity on certain definitions or exclusions and “the need to create even some of the practical aspects of collection instructions that align with the various different ways that agencies are organized or that they publish information publicly,” he said.

The inventories thus far have mostly been completed and published by larger departments for all of their smaller components, using methods such as “data calls” to obtain information. Despite guidance on what the URL for the public inventory should look like and requiring agencies to ensure their inventory was reflected on the AI.gov page listing them, compliance varied. 

“There’s a lot of small improvements that we think will make a difference in how agencies can … collect and create consistent datasets that can be more easily machine-readable and shared across agencies consolidated into a single list,” Stosz said. 

More clearly defined AI leadership could help, according to Stosz.

Stosz said they’re hopeful the appointment of chief AI officers, as required by the executive order and defined under the new guidance, will create a “stronger and more clearly accountable leader for AI” and will make it easier for agencies “to collect, report on and ensure consistency with their inventories each year.”

Rebecca Heilweil contributed to this article.

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Ex-White House official says improved artificial intelligence inventories could help OMB guidance https://fedscoop.com/improved-artificial-intelligence-inventories-could-help-guidance/ Fri, 29 Sep 2023 19:58:43 +0000 https://fedscoop.com/?p=73245 Agency AI use case inventories have so far been “spotty” and “inconsistent” said Lynne Parker, a former Trump and Biden White House official who helped draft the EO that required them.

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Improving “spotty” artificial intelligence use case inventories for federal agencies could help inform the Office of Management and Budget’s process of creating guidance for government use of the technology, a former White House official who worked on the executive order that established those disclosures said.

Lynne Parker, a former AI official in the Trump and Biden White Houses, told FedScoop in a recent interview that OMB could enhance its parameters for agency AI inventories by focusing on what those disclosures were intended to achieve: Improving public transparency, helping agencies see what others in the government are using, and informing policy guidance on responsible use of AI.

For example, Parker suggested structuring a call to agencies “to put use cases into various different kinds of buckets or to ask key questions that are important for informing the development of that policy guidance.”

“By thinking through those ultimate purposes, then you can structure the information that you’re requesting from the agencies such that it can actually serve those purposes,” said Parker, who is currently associate vice chancellor and director of the AI Tennessee Initiative at the University of Tennessee Knoxville.

Her comments come as OMB prepares to release guidance on federal government use of AI as part of its efforts to regulate and harness the capabilities of the budding technology. That guidance was expected to be released for public comment over the summer, according to a May 2023 announcement, but has yet to be published.

AI inventories are required to be published annually and publicly under a Trump-era order (EO 13960), but those disclosures so far have varied widely. Stanford’s RegLab found widespread lagging compliance in the first year of agencies’ use case inventories, and FedScoop reporting has found inconsistencies in reporting have persisted. 

Those inconsistencies include variations in format, timeline, and level of detail, along with notable use case omissions. These issues have caught the attention of some members of Congress and were recently discussed in a House Oversight subcommittee hearing on federal agency use of AI.

Parker, who led the interagency committee that drafted the order, said the “spotty” and “inconsistent” nature of the disclosures is due in part to the timing of the executive order — which came in the late days of the Trump administration — as well as new priorities. 

“With any administration, you come in with a lot of different priorities,” Parker said, adding that the Biden administration’s priorities required a lot of work by OMB and agencies in other areas. “They simply, I don’t think, had the cycles, nor were they being messaged by the administration that things like this executive order were a priority.”

The order, among other stipulations, created a framework for how the U.S. government should approach the nascent technology and established requirements for additional guidance and transparent disclosure of AI being used in the government through use case inventories. The inventories are required of all agencies except for the Defense Department, intelligence community agencies, and independent regulatory agencies. 

Although the Federal CIO Council, which is led by OMB officials, did come up with guidance for the first year, Parker said, the effort “was, frankly, trying to check a box” and focused more on trying to have something reported, “as opposed to thinking through how the information that’s reported could be useful.” 

The CIO Council’s most recent version of the guidance was more detailed than it was in the first year, which has helped some agencies. The Department of Energy, for example, said clarification from OMB on what constitutes a use case and what is considered research and development — which doesn’t have to be reported — allowed the agency to more comprehensively compile its inventory.

OMB didn’t respond to a FedScoop request for comment for this story. A White House official, however, recently told lawmakers on a House Oversight subcommittee that the inventories are important.

“The initiative to start cataloging those use cases was an important one and it’s very much work in progress,” said Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. With respect to coming OMB guidance, she also said: “The Office of Management and Budget is working in a very focused manner on what they clearly understand is a priority.”

Parker pointed to other actions the order mandated that don’t appear to have been completed by OMB and Office of Personnel Management, too. The former was supposed to have issued a roadmap for their planned policy guidance on how to implement the principles the order outlined, and the latter was required to inventory rotational programs and make recommendations on how to increase the number of government employees with AI expertise.

OMB also didn’t respond to a request for comment on whether its forthcoming AI guidance will address that requirement from the order. OPM told FedScoop in July it could start compiling its report after a data call was complete and pointed to a memo on AI competencies for federal workers. It didn’t respond to a request for comment on the status of that work.

The coming OMB guidance, Parker said, is paramount – even more than inventories of use cases. “I think having consistent policies for how government shall ensure that those principles from the executive order have held – I think that is kind of more fundamental,” Parker said.

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Increase in Energy’s reported AI uses reflects ‘enhanced’ guidance from White House https://fedscoop.com/energy-ai-use-increase-reflects-enhanced-guidance/ Thu, 31 Aug 2023 21:49:23 +0000 https://fedscoop.com/?p=72440 Many of the roughly 180 artificial intelligence use cases recently reported by the Department of Energy began development or acquisition between 2017 and 2023.

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The Department of Energy’s list of publicly reported artificial intelligence use cases is four times larger than what it reported last year, reflecting clearer White House guidance on what needs to be disclosed, the agency said.

The DOE’s 2023 AI use case inventory, which is required under a 2020 executive order, includes roughly 180 applications of the technology in various stages of deployment throughout the agency. The majority of those uses began development or acquisition between 2017 and 2023. Roughly 130 are being operated by a single subsection of the agency, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, which is focused on environmentally sustainable energy sources. 

That new inventory — which appears to include very few, if any, of the uses the agency reported previously — is the result of updated guidance provided by the Office of Management and Budget, according to a DOE spokesperson.

“One of the primary challenges faced in the earlier inventory was a lack of clear guidance on what precisely constitutes a use case and what falls under the domain of research and development (R&D),” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “In response, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) provided enhanced guidance that clarified these ambiguities, enabling a comprehensive capture of relevant AI projects within the agency.”

As a result, many of DOE’s uses of the emerging technology are being reported for the first time this year.

AI use case inventories are required of many federal agencies — except the Department of Defense, those in the intelligence community, and independent regulatory agencies — under a Trump-era executive order (EO 13960). Those inventories must be posted publicly and annually, though how agencies have responded to the order and guidance from the Federal Chief Information Officers Council — which is led by OMB officials — has varied in the first two years. 

Researchers at Stanford’s RegLab reported widespread lagging compliance in the first year of agencies’ use case inventories in a December 2022 report about the country’s AI strategy. Meanwhile, recent FedScoop reviews of agency use case inventories found inconsistencies in reporting have persisted. In response to FedScoop reporting, the National Archives and Records Administration has publicly shared its AI use cases and the Department of Transportation removed a reference to the Federal Aviation Administration using ChatGPT. 

“Agencies are responsible for maintaining the accuracy of their inventories. Additionally, per the instructions for the 2023 use case inventory, agencies are instructed to exclude AI research and development activities, including any AI use case that is unlikely to be incorporated into agency operations,” an OMB spokesperson recently told FedScoop. “We will continue to update the required guidance, as deemed necessary, to mature this effort. We have no further comment at this time.”

Fluctuating applications

It appears the majority, if not all, of the 45 use cases from the DOE’s previous inventory aren’t included in the new one. The bulk of uses reported in DOE’s previous inventory were operated by the Idaho National Laboratory, but the lab has only two use cases reported in its 2023 list. While both of those uses share similarities with applications reported last year, it’s not clear they’re the same. Similarly, the Office of Electricity had 10 uses last year, but none were reported for 2023. 

When asked about those changes, a DOE spokesperson said projects might not have been included in the 2023 inventory if they weren’t active during the reporting period.  Projects can have periods of inactivity caused by things like reassessing objectives, budgetary constraints, and changing priorities, the spokesperson added. 

They also said researchers may have shifted focus. “It is not uncommon for researchers to transition from one project to another based on emerging needs, technological breakthroughs, or evolving strategic directions,” the spokesperson said.

The inventory also contains at least two use cases that appear to be listed more than once. The DOE didn’t respond to an inquiry about those instances before publication.

Most uses reported in DOE’s inventory include a date only for when they were developed or acquired, which potentially suggests that most uses are still in the development phase. Nine use cases had implementation dates reported, however, including one for groundwater modeling that’s been in use since 2003. 

Among newly disclosed AI use cases: The creation of a resiliency framework for power grids that uses machine learning to protect against cyberattacks; AI-based hazard detection for coal ash and tailings storage facilities; and a machine-learning-driven process to predict locations of undocumented orphaned wells. All three began development or acquisition in 2022 and are being operated by the National Energy Technology Laboratory.

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National Archives discloses planned AI uses for record management https://fedscoop.com/national-archives-plans-ai-record-management/ Fri, 25 Aug 2023 15:05:33 +0000 https://fedscoop.com/?p=72233 The records agency wants to use AI systems for auto filling metadata and responding to FOIAs, according to an inventory of the technology.

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The National Archives and Records Administration revealed that it plans to use several forms of AI to help manage its massive trove of records in an inventory published earlier this month.

In its 2023 AI use case inventory, the agency charged with managing U.S. government documents disclosed it wants to use an AI-based system to autofill metadata for its archival documents. Similar to some other agencies, the National Archives also disclosed its interest in using the technology to help respond to FOIA requests.

While NARA shared these planned applications, it did not include any current, operational use cases of AI.

The list of AI use cases is required of most federal agencies under a 2020 executive order (EO 13960). Those inventories must be posted publicly and annually.

The agency’s public release of its AI inventory comes after FedScoop reported that the National Archives had published its list only on MAX.gov, a platform for sharing information within the government. The Office of Management and Budget later re-emphasized that agencies are required to release a list on their agency website, in addition to the MAX portal.

“The National Archives is excited about the use of AI/ML/RPA and how we can utilize these technologies to help with natural language processing, search, and process automation,” said NARA Chief Information Officer Sheena Burrell in a previous statement to FedScoop. 

Burrell also said the agency was in the process of developing a governance life cycle for AI “along with the evaluation criterias to assess our AI solutions for compliances in accordance with the Executive Order.”

While the agency provided most details required under the Federal CIO Council’s 2023 guidance for the inventories — and additional optional information — it appears to follow a format consistent with the guidance for the previous year’s inventories. As a result, it doesn’t include whether the use is contracted or consistent with the executive order. It also doesn’t include columns for dates that note when stages in a use case’s life cycle take place.

Researchers at Stanford’s RegLab reported widespread lagging compliance in the first year of agencies’ use case inventories in a December 2022 report about the country’s AI strategy. Recent FedScoop reviews of agency use case inventories found inconsistencies in reporting have persisted.

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OMB acknowledges issues with process for inventorying AI use cases https://fedscoop.com/omb-acknowledges-issues-with-process-for-inventorying-ai-use-cases/ Wed, 16 Aug 2023 15:19:40 +0000 https://fedscoop.com/?p=71946 In response to FedScoop reporting, OMB has acknowledged "issues with reporting" required by a 2020 executive order on AI.

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The Office of Management and Budget has shared additional information about how agencies should comply with Executive Order 13960, a set of Trump administration rules established in 2020 that aim to guide the responsible deployment of AI across government. OMB’s clarification follows FedScoop reporting that noted patchwork compliance with the order — and highlights that many agencies may not have had a complete understanding of its requirements.

In response to a series of questions, an OMB spokesperson said that if agencies do not currently utilize AI, they must post a statement saying they don’t use the technology. Agencies are required to both post a full version of the AI use case list to the federal MAX portal, and a public version to their own website. Critically, the OMB spokesperson acknowledged problems with the AI inventorying process — an issue previously flagged by FedScoop, as well as other researchers.

“Office of the Federal CIO desk officers, the CIO Council, and the Small Agency CIO Council are engaging on an ongoing basis with agencies on their AI use case inventory requirements and to clarify the instructions and address issues with reporting,” the spokesperson said. “It’s important to note that this is the first year small agencies have been required to join this process. We are supporting them at every level to ensure their success.”

Federal agencies, particularly smaller ones, are still working on satisfying their compliance obligations under the order. For example, the Selective Service System (SSS), the independent agency that registers people who might be conscripted into the military, is still developing an initial inventory of AI use cases.

Micheal Migliara, the associate director for public and intergovernmental affairs at SSS, said the agency is considering using technology to improve its customer service capabilities, potentially in the form of chatbots and automating other administrative tasks.

Migliara added: “We are actively developing our AI strategy and capabilities in response to the Executive Order … [w]e are currently in the preliminary stages of our AI requirements assessment to determine our Agency’s AI capabilities and future needs, and are closely following all federal mandates for the potential adoption of commercial AI solutions.”

Similarly, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a regulatory agency that oversees programs like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has published its AI use case to MAX.gov, but told FedScoop that it’s still working on publishing its public list of use cases. In a similar vein, the National Archives only announced it would publicly post its AI inventory in response to FedScoop’s questions asking about that requirement.

The Tennessee Valley Authority, a federal utility, is also still working on meeting the executive order’s requirements. The agency has yet to designate a responsible artificial intelligence official, Elizabeth Gibson, a communications lead for the agency, told FedScoop.

“TVA has compiled an asset inventory that it is currently evaluating for both responsiveness and security, given our critical infrastructure role, and has not yet made that inventory public,” Gibson told FedScoop. “TVA intends to comply with applicable federal guidelines and directives, including Executive Order 13960, and will work to implement and track secure AI technology to meet our mission.”

When asked about whether it had created an AI inventory, a spokesperson for Amtrak said the rail provider would not provide a comment on the topic. Amtrak is still working on inventorying its operational technology, an issue that FedScoop previously flagged.

Meanwhile, other aspects of Executive Order 13960 raise questions about transparency. For instance, agencies seem to be at their own discretion when deciding what use cases should — and should not — be public, noted John Davisson, an attorney at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, in an email to FedScoop.

“[A]gencies get to interpret the exemptions in the order and guidance, and the public can’t easily test those withholdings like they can under the FOIA,” he said. “So while more disclosure is clearly a good thing, we really can’t trust that these inventories include everything they’re supposed to, let alone all agency uses of AI.”

Moreover, not every agency’s inventory has been uploaded to a list of inventories on AI.gov, the website that’s supposed to document all the publicly-disclosable use cases identified across the federal government, in a timely manner. For example, NASA — which told FedScoop it’s submitted its inventory to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy — and OPM’s inventories only seem to have been added on the morning of August 16, according to a web-watching tool used by FedScoop.

“The public shouldn’t have to go hunting on dozens of agency websites to find out how their government is using AI,” remarked Davisson.

The 2023 CIO Council guidance tasks agencies with ensuring their inventories are present on that site. Agencies are instructed to email their Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer desk officer with the public link to their inventory and a request to add it to AI.gov if it’s not already included.

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National Archives will make its AI use case inventory public https://fedscoop.com/national-archives-makes-ai-use-case-inventory-public/ Wed, 16 Aug 2023 15:18:58 +0000 https://fedscoop.com/?p=71943 CIO Council guidance for 2023 requires use cases to be published both to the MAX.gov federal community, and publicly on each agency's website.

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The National Archives, the federal agency responsible for maintaining government records, plans to release an inventory of its artificial intelligence use cases on AI.gov in the coming days. The agency has already begun pilots of certain artificial intelligence and machine learning systems, so its plans to publish a public inventory mark a significant step forward for government transparency over growing use of this technology.

A 2020 executive order, EO 13960, requires federal agencies to produce inventories of their AI use case, and subsequent guidance from the CIO Council requires the lists to be published both to MAX.gov, an internal federal information sharing platform, and publicly on each agency’s website. NARA confirmed that it plans to publish a public inventory in response to questions from FedScoop.

These inventories are meant to provide insight into how the government is already using AI — and help streamline the deployment of the technology in the future. Still, as FedScoop has previously reported, compliance with this executive order has been patchwork. While some agencies have invested heavily in developing rich inventories, others have, for example, included a shuttered project and an “error,” or excluded otherwise public deployments of AI.

NARA’s announcement that it will publish its inventory on AI.gov, which includes a website that tracks federal agencies’ inventories, came after the agency previously said that its use cases were only available on the Office of Management and Budget-run Max.gov portal and “not open to the public.” NARA made its announcement after FedScoop asked OMB about NARA’s decision.

An OMB agency spokesperson said: “Agencies are required to post the full version of their AI use case inventories internally via MAX Federal Community, as well as post a public version of their inventory on their agency’s website.”

The expected disclosure is another reminder that agencies that maintain large amounts of records and documents see opportunity in artificial intelligence. The State Department, for example, is considering using AI to accelerate declassification efforts. Other agencies are now looking at AI as a way to facilitate FOIA processing.

“The National Archives is excited about the use of AI/ML/RPA and how we can utilize these technologies to help with natural language processing, search, and process automation,” said NARA CIO Sheena Burrell in a statement to FedScoop. “While we have started piloting AI/ML and RPA, we have not deployed any solutions into production yet. We’re in the process of developing the AI governance life cycle at NARA along with the evaluation criterias to assess our AI solutions for compliances in accordance with the Executive Order.”

Burrell continued: “NARA is the nation’s record keeper where we maintain billions of records. We’re trying to focus on AI use cases that will benefit researchers, our archivists, and the American public. The areas of focus are related to natural language processing, search, and our backlog reduction efforts.”

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DOJ official: Data analytics resulting in more efficient health care fraud detection https://fedscoop.com/doj-health-care-fraud-data-anlaytics-cio-council/ Wed, 22 Feb 2023 21:30:36 +0000 https://fedscoop.com/?p=66069 DOJ's Jake Foster says the ability to spot patterns in large datasets is resulting in the more efficient use of prosecutors’ resources.

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Data analytics and machine learning tools are driving health care fraud prosecutions led by law enforcement and federal health agencies, according to a senior Department of Justice official.

Jake Foster, acting principal assistant chief within the fraud section of the DOJ’s criminal division, said Wednesday at a Federal CIO Council event that analysis of aggregated data was providing previously unobtainable crucial insights.

While a legal case cannot rely on data alone, Foster said the ability to spot patterns in large datasets is resulting in the more efficient use of prosecutors’ resources by facilitating more targeted initial inquiries.

“These are the type of things that have been going on for years … that the old type of policing would not have caught,” he said. “The way that we do it [now] is through data analysis.”

The DOJ official cited an example of a case prosecuted last March, in which 16 Michigan and Ohio-area defendants, including 12 doctors, were sentenced to prison for a $250 million health care fraud scheme. According to Foster, the DOJ’s investigation progressed after data analysis produced an initial list of physicians who were among the most prolific prescribers of opioids, and a preliminary investigation identified connections between certain subjects.

In that case, patients submitted to expensive, unnecessary and sometimes painful back injections to receive opioid prescriptions. The doctors were compensated for the expensive injections and agreed to work only a few hours a week to “stay under the radar” of the Drug Enforcement Agency, according to the DOJ.

Foster added that the use of data analytics is key to ensuring that federal agencies working to combat health care fraud return the most amount of money to taxpayers.

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CISA releases Microsoft 365 security configuration baselines for pilots, public comment https://fedscoop.com/cisa-releases-microsoft-365-security-configuration-baselines/ Fri, 21 Oct 2022 00:29:37 +0000 https://fedscoop.com/?p=62787 A series of Google Workspace baselines are expected within months as part of the SCuBA project to protect sensitive information.

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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released recommended Microsoft 365 security configuration baselines Thursday for use in cloud security pilots by federal agencies and for public comment.

Part of CISA’s Secure Cloud Business Applications (SCuBA) project to protect sensitive information, the information system specifications will help agencies align their environments with federal cyber mandates.

CISA announced SCuBA in April, and the baselines are just the first — with a Google Workspace series expected within months.

A configuration baseline is a documented specification for an information system that is formally reviewed and can be amended only through change of control procedures.

“CISA has developed these baselines to be broadly adopted by the federal agencies, beginning with pilot efforts, as the agencies transform, modernize and secure their enterprise environments,” Sean Connelly, senior cyber architect at CISA, told FedScoop.

The flexible baselines complement agencies’ unique requirements and risk tolerance levels and include automation to quickly assess Microsoft 365 services.

A consortium of security experts called the Federal Chief Information Officers Council’s Cyber Innovation Tiger Team conducted the foundational work on the baselines that CISA’s Cyber Quality Service Management Office (QSMO) has subsequently taken up.

“We have worked hard to closely align these baselines with zero trust tenets and principles,” Connelly said. “And they can be a key resource as agencies map these baselines with the application, workload pillar of CISA’s Zero Trust Maturity Model.”

Federal agencies and other organizations using cloud services have until Nov. 24, 2022 to comment on the baselines.

SCuBA will help vendors adapt their capabilities and develop products that are more fit for purpose, said Alice Fakir, account partner for federal security services at IBM, during CyberTalks presented by CyberScoop on Thursday.

Increased partnerships with vendors will help build out the technical reference architecture into multiple versions.

“If there was something I’d like to add and see more of it’s more engagement and collaboration with the government, CISA specifically, and being able to build out additional proofs of concept around these things,” Fakir said.

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FDIC appoints Chezian Sivagnanam to IT architecture leadership role https://fedscoop.com/fdic-names-sivagnanam-chief-architect/ Fri, 14 Oct 2022 00:28:50 +0000 https://fedscoop.com/?p=62582 Sivagnanam joins from the National Science Foundation, where he was chief enterprise architect for 13 years.

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The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has named Chezian Sivagnanam as section chief for IT architecture and design within the agency’s chief information officer organization.

Elanchezhian started work at FDIC on Sept. 12. He joined the agency from the National Science Foundation, where for 13 years he was chief enterprise architect — the equivalent of a chief technology officer at other agencies.

The architecture and design section at FDIC sits within the enterprise strategy branch of the department’s chief information officer organization.

Chezian adds more than 25 years of IT experience including leading large-scale digital transformations across federal government.

“In his free time, Chezian loves playing sports and spends time with his adorable dog, Sneakers,” reads the Chief Information Officer Organization’s hiring announcement. “Please welcome Chezian to the FDIC and CIOO family!”

Chezian co-chairs the Federal CIO Council‘s Innovation Committee, which makes recommendations on trustworthy artificial intelligence, zero-trust security architectures and cloud computing.

At NSF, Chezian advised the CIO and coordinated the agency’s IT strategy and architecture. Prior to that he worked in the private sector including at Deloitte Consulting.

Chezian earned his bachelor of electrical and electronics engineering degree from Anna University’s College of Engineering in India.

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