Defense Secretary and 2021 Wash100 Award recipient Gen. Lloyd Austin said at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing the U.S. should put more money into technology research, deployment and repurposing efforts to confront China's pacing challenge, DOD News reported Thursday.

Austin told panel members that President Biden's $715 billion defense budget request for fiscal year 2022 would continue to fund traditional space, aircraft and shipbuilding programs at the Department of Defense (DOD). He added that allies and partners across the globe will play a role in the country's asymmetric advantage goal.

"I would just tell you that one of the strengths of the United States of America is that we have a lot of allies and partners who want to work with us," the defense secretary said.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and four-time Wash100 Award recipient, told the same committee that investment efforts in the proposed FY 2022 DOD budget and the department's joint warfighting concept “will pave the way for a Joint Force of the future.”

Veritone announced on Thursday that the company has been awarded a new U.S. patent for its Conductor technology that performs dynamic artificial intelligence (AI) model orchestration through the use of a proprietary deep neural network (DNN). 

“A little more than a decade ago, there was only a handful of enterprise-class AI engines, but today the variety of AI engines in the market is enormous,” commented Chad Steelberg, Veritone co-founder and CEO. 

“The aiWARE operating system with its hundreds of ready-to-deploy AI models simplifies model deployment and scaling, and the addition of Conductor further accelerates the Veritone mission to democratize AI, speeding project deployment while boosting model performance and reducing compute cost,” added Steelberg.

The company’s aiWARE-based conductor technology uses the power of its DNN to quickly analyze data sets and apply the most optimal AI models available to that data set. The patented functionality is more than simply efficient model selection. The DNN uniquely looks at multiple data set features across vision, speech, text, and data sources and orchestrates a portfolio of AI models to yield the most optimal results.

The Conductor technology is designed to ingest data, extracting key features of that data, then review the features of interest and apply any previous learning to select the most accurate AI model to use on that data set from all available models in the aiWARE operating system. 

“Siloed single-engine AI solutions will not age well as new faster, cheaper, and more accurate engines come on the market. Many companies will see their ‘modern’ AI solutions become antiquated and costly to use,” said Al Brown, Veritone chief technology officer.

“aiWARE’s Conductor technology takes the guesswork out of selecting the right engines for the job with its dynamic learning and application of AI models to unique data sets.”

Veritone has a significant funnel of pending patents and Patent No. US 11,017,780 is Veritone’s 14th U.S. awarded Patent. 

The U.S. Army demonstrated a launcher designed to autonomously fire missiles at maritime or ground-based targets, Defense News reported Wednesday.

The wheeled Autonomous Multidomain Launcher rolls out of transport aircraft then fires missiles, like an autonomous counterpart of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. The demonstration took place Wednesday at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona to exhibit how AML would contribute to multidomain operations.

Brig. Gen. John Rafferty, who leads the Army’s efforts to modernize long-range precision fires, said the 18th Field Artillery Brigade ran the demonstration for over an hour. The system fired seven rockets to simulate the range of the future Precision Strike Missile.

Reps. Michael Waltz, R-Fla.; Deborah Ross, D-N.C.; Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas; and Frank Lucas, R-Okla., have presented a bill to produce a strategy for the country's science and technology pursuits. 

The National Science and Technology Strategy Act of 2021 would task the National Science and Technology Council and the Office of Science (NSTC) and Technology Policy (OSTP) to deliver a comprehensive strategy on national S&T, the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology said Monday.

NSTC and OSTP would quadrennially assess the U.S. science and technology scene and produce a corresponding national strategy. The President would also annually report to Congress on U.S. research priorities and science and technology trends across the globe.

“This bill requires a whole of government strategy for technology and innovation to maintain United States leadership and national security,” Waltz said.

Leonor Tomero, deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense policy, said the military will review its missile defense approach to address related, growing challenges, DOD News reported Wednesday.

She told the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces that the Department of Defense (DOD) will assess its strategies, technologies and policies that compose how the military defends against missiles of China and other adversaries.

“The department will continue to ensure that we bring a more integrated approach to air and missile defense to address various types of ballistic missile threats and enable defense against cruise missiles and unmanned aerial systems,” she said.

Tomero made her statement with regard to the missile defense budget request for fiscal year 2022. DOD’s planned missile defense investments include missile detection sensors, such as those designed to track hypersonic weapons, she said.

The U.S. Space Force has embarked on initiatives to test emerging technology, train personnel and build an innovation environment with industry partners as part of the military branch's digital service strategy, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

Reb Butler III, a strategic adviser in USSF's chief technology and innovation office, said at a virtual event hosted by the AFCEA Washington, D.C. chapter that the branch uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing approaches to manage its recruitment process.

USSF Force Design Integration Office Director Michael Dickey told event audience the service plans to work with the private sector to launch a pilot program on a model-based environment for systems engineering.

The branch released its Vision for a Digital Service in May and Gen. John “Jay Raymond, chief of Space Operations and two-time Wash100 Award recipient, urged the service to embrace modern information technology platforms that could support its security, stability and accessibility goals.

Deputy Federal Chief Information Officer and 2020 Wash100 Award recipient Maria Roat said that Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is an essential part of zero-trust security efforts in the federal government, FedScoop reported Wednesday.

Speaking at the General Services Administration-hosted IPv6 Summit, Roat cited zero trust architecture as a key pillar of President Biden’s cybersecurity executive order.

In his EO, Biden ordered federal agencies to develop ZTA implementation plans and accelerate cloud migration projects to keep pace with the evolving cyber threat landscape.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sent a memorandum to heads of executive departments and agencies on Nov. 19, 2020, requiring them to release IPv6 policies on publicly available websites within a 180-day period.

OMB expects at least 80 percent of IP-enabled federal information systems to incorporate the latest version of the communications protocol by the end of fiscal year 2025.

Roat urged agency leaders to work with industry partners to meet the government’s IPv6 transition goals.

A study conducted by TransUnion and the Ponemon Institute has found that 53 percent of federal, state and local government agency leaders said they have seen an increase in threats related to account takeover fraud in the past two years.

TransUnion said Tuesday they polled nearly 600 agency leaders for the Public Sector Fraud Study and found that only 41 percent of respondents said senior officials prioritize ATO prevention efforts.

According to the report, 60 percent of government employees said attacks associated with ATO threats have become more severe and 62 percent of agency leaders said mobile phones are the most vulnerable to those threats.

“Combatting fraud in each vector, from mobile to online portals, is an imperative and essential task that government agencies must address in 2021,” said Jonathan McDonald, executive vice president and head of TransUnion’s public sector business.

TransUnion found that more than 60 percent of survey respondents said they believe artificial intelligence and enhancements to identity authentication will help agencies improve user experiences and make citizens' online access to their accounts more secure.

“Focusing on emerging tools, such as AI, device risk assessment and identity verification, in addition to policies and best practices for a seamless user experience, will go a long way towards protecting and gaining the confidence of consumers,” added McDonald.