People

Eileen Donahoe tapped for State Dept. digital freedom envoy

The former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council will work within the State Department’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy.

Artificial Intelligence

Energy officials say their agency can lead the federal approach to national AI R&D efforts

Agency witnesses testifying at a Senate hearing spoke to Energy’s posture in addressing the “grand challenge” in safely developing and deploying artificial intelligence. 

Emerging Tech

AUKUS partnership success hinges on export controls for sensitive tech, officials say 

The trilateral Australia-U.K.-U.S. partnership is intended to share more emerging technologies, which officials say demands synchronicity in export control standards. 

Artificial Intelligence

How NASA, NOAA and AI might save the internet from devastating solar storms

Coronal mass ejections that can occur during the solar maximum are electrically charged, meaning they can easily destroy electrical and computer equipment.

Emerging Tech

Emerging tech is an SBA priority for both internal systems and external assistance

The Small Business Administration is leading the charge to democratize access to emerging technologies — particularly AI — across U.S. companies.

Artificial Intelligence

Library of Congress probes the many collisions of copyright and AI

The Copyright Office has questions about how protections do — or don’t — apply to AI-generated works.

Artificial Intelligence

Agriculture Department is taking a ‘cautious’ approach to generative AI

The agency’s data “also needs to be in a condition… to support those kinds of tools,” according to USDA chief data officer and responsible AI officer, Chris Alvares.

Ideas

4 ways the defense spending bill could have addressed AI, other issues to boost cybersecurity

COMMENTARY | The Senate's version of the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act does address some important cybersecurity issues, but it may have missed opportunities to expand collaboration and tackle emerging technology challenges.

Ideas

AI and new standards promise to make scientific data more useful by making it reusable and accessible

COMMENTARY | Data replication is an integral part of the scientific process, which proper research data management can improve.

Artificial Intelligence

It’s time to talk about user responsibility and generative AI

COMMENTARY: While the conversation around artificial intelligence has mostly centered on the obligation of software developers to create ethical guardrails for the technology, it's time to focus on the accountability of the users.

Emerging Tech

Emerging technologies star in White House R&D priorities

The Office of Science and Technology Policy released the fiscal 2025 federal research priority docket, focusing on a resilient U.S. research culture. 

Artificial Intelligence

FEC takes preliminary step toward regulating AI in political ads

The Federal Election Commission voted to advance a petition calling for the agency to amend its rules around “fraudulent misrepresentation” to include ads that use deceptive AI.

Defense

New AI laser system to guard US capital region from unauthorized aircraft

‘The first line of defense is actually that they will beam a laser at the cockpit of the aircraft.’

Artificial Intelligence

White House and DARPA challenge innovators to bring AI tools to cyber defense

The AI Cyber Challenge asks leading companies to develop advanced AI systems that will contribute to critical infrastructure cybersecurity — with nearly $20 million available in prizes.

Ideas

AI can help forecast air quality, but freak events like 2023’s summer of wildfire smoke require traditional methods too

COMMENTARY | When wildfire smoke turned New York City’s skies orange in early June 2023, emergency room visits for asthma doubled.

Ideas

5 federal use cases for generative AI

COMMENTARY | Leaders who want to hit the ground running with the emerging tech should look to applications where generative AI has demonstrated success.

Artificial Intelligence

NSF aims to drive democratization of AI with its funding

The National Science Foundation is working to expand artificial intelligence research and access to make the technology more equitable and to build a strong public research infrastructure. 

Artificial Intelligence

IARPA grapples with threats posed by generative AI

The intelligence agency is looking for insights about the vulnerabilities within large language models and how it can prevent false information from harming the analysts using them.

Artificial Intelligence

Tech officials caution on data security in public sector AI applications

A group of tech policy leads across federal agencies discussed the current and future state of play of artificial intelligence in government systems.