Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing public services and enhancing the citizen experience by streamlining processes, reducing bureaucracy, and delivering more personalized and efficient services.

One prime example of this transformation is at the U.S. Postal Service, which is undergoing a significant overhaul as part of its “Delivering for America” plan, says Pritha Mehra, CIO for USPS.

“It’s modernizing the entire service across the board, whether it’s hiring practices, the network optimization, and the product suites we offer the customers. So machine learning has played a pretty large role across the spectrum,” says Mehra in a recent FedScoop interview.

“We’ve been engaged in leveraging many different capabilities around machine learning. And now, as you look at generative AI, we’re looking at where we can bring that value into the Postal Service almost immediately,” she adds.

However, the journey to integrate AI into public service has its challenges. Heidi Kobylski, general manager for the civilian business unit at Microsoft, points out the importance of establishing robust governance to prevent bias and ensure fairness, trust, and privacy.

“You have to make sure that the data and your governance are in order once you enable the capability so that it doesn’t grow like wildfire,” says Kobylski. “[Agencies must also] make sure that [they] have a plan early to educate all the users. The technology community in an agency, of course, understands the benefit. But it’s important to start educating agencies top to bottom.”

Mehra and Kobylski share their recommendations for taking advantage of AI more effectively and quickly. By carefully navigating challenges and focusing on the ethical and efficient use of AI, public services can not only enhance operational efficiency but also significantly improve the quality of services offered to citizens, paving the way for a more connected and technologically advanced future in public service.

Learn more about how agencies can adopt AI for customer experience and service delivery. This video panel discussion was produced by Scoop News Group for FedScoop and underwritten by Microsoft.

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Artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the world, promising a future filled with unimaginable possibilities. One of the key issues to capitalizing on AI is ensuring that it is used responsibly.

Brian Abrahamson, associate lab director and chief digital officer for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Michael Mattmiller, Microsoft’s senior director for state government affairs, joined FedScoop to explore how leaders think about implementing AI responsibly, including establishing ethical guidelines, data governance and privacy and security measures.

Abrahamson emphasized the need for leaders to recognize the fallibility of AI. He highlights the potential inaccuracies, especially in generative AI, and stresses the importance of having a human in the loop for critical decision-making processes.

“This notion of hallucinations that we’ve all heard a lot about can give you a very inaccurate response in a very confident way. And so we need to make sure that we’re asking the questions if we’re using AI models to drive business decisions, to drive field activities, to drive elements that might involve human safety or critical decision making.”

Mattmiller concurred with Brian, emphasizing the exciting potential of AI technology but cautioning about introducing new risks. “Leaders need to be thinking about what can be done to encourage the innovative use of this technology to learn from it to try it out—but also recognize it’s a copilot, that there still needs to be that human element that we need to be able to assess and mitigate risk,” he said.

To navigate this complex landscape, leaders across all sectors must embrace responsible AI use. This requires establishing clear principles and policies; as Mattmiller emphasized, “We want to make sure the technology is used in a way that respects fairness, that maintains privacy and security and is ultimately accountable to humans.” Transparency becomes key, with institutions like the PNNL reiterating disclosure of AI involvement in publications and software development.

“One of the most significant that we’ve put in place is you have to disclose the use of artificial intelligence when it contributes to the work product. So, at the National Laboratory, we produce thousands of peer-reviewed research publications every year. Generative AI can be a very useful tool in helping construct abstracts and conduct elements of synthesis of other people’s publications. But to the extent that AI was used, it has to be disclosed,” added Abrahamson.

“And that’s not only for scientific integrity purposes; it’s to make sure that when others are reviewing your work, they know that AI was a part of generating that work, and they can take an appropriate stance in scrutinizing those elements.”

Abrahamson and Mattmiller provided valuable recommendations for leaders looking to implement AI effectively, stressing the importance of balancing advocacy and skepticism, emphasizing cultural considerations and the significance of leadership setting the tone at the top and investing in workforce training to responsibly adopt AI.

Ultimately, the responsible rise of AI requires a collaborative effort. Open communication, collaboration and a shared commitment to ethical principles will be key to shaping a future where AI serves as a force for good, empowering agencies and citizens to flourish.

Learn more about how Microsoft helps agencies adopt AI responsibly and about leading in the era of AI.

This video panel discussion was produced by Scoop News Group for FedScoop and underwritten by Microsoft.

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Artificial intelligence is helping federal agencies accelerate threat detection, respond to incidents more precisely and provide new ways to proactively defend against attacks, according to two chief technology officers working in the government marketplace.

For the U.S. Department of State, the success and increasing role of AI is reflected in the extent to which AI and machine learning are being embraced by senior leadership as an essential tool for automating security processes and fostering faster decision-making, said Chief Technology Officer Glen Johnson in a FedScoop interview.

“The good news now is…we’re getting to the point where budgets are now allocated to specifically artificial intelligence. We have a chief AI officer, we have a responsible AI official, and we have a CTO for AI — myself,” said Johnson. “The second thing is that we have sponsorship at the highest level. For AI projects in the department, the Department of State has two deputy secretaries, one for policy, one for management and resources [who] collectively review all the AI cases…and set the priorities to maximize the value,” he said.

One area where “artificial intelligence is making a huge difference right now…is improving the accuracy of [cybersecurity threat] detections,” added Steve Faehl, federal security chief technology officer at Microsoft Federal.

“We’re getting to the point where these AI detections are substantial and accurate to the point where disruptive automation can now be utilized as a part of the artificial intelligence. We recently published information about ransomware campaigns that we have proactively disrupted within moments after the attack, really diminishing and mitigating any possible impact with the organizations that had the ransomware,” said Faehl.

“Because we’re able to have a very high-fidelity detection, with some new advancements in AI, we’re able to feed automation and disrupt those campaigns in real-time. And this really gives the defenders a strategic advantage and asymmetric advantage for the first time in cyber history where attackers have to go hands-on-keyboard, but defenders do not,” he said.

Moving forward with AI will require a greater commitment to employee education, however, said Johnson.

“We have an enormous challenge in terms of education — educating our workforce, particularly our executive leadership, because a lot of these improvements that we can achieve through artificial intelligence require that we do things differently, that we make different judgments, that we accept certain risks,” he said.

Learn more about how Microsoft helps agencies meet federal cyber requirements.

This video panel discussion was produced by Scoop News Group for FedScoop and underwritten by Microsoft.

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