Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, and Robin Kelly, D-Ill., are planning to collaborate with the Bipartisan Policy Center in the coming months to establish a national artificial intelligence strategy.

Hurd’s office said Thursday that he and Kelly intend to conduct meetings with public and private sector representatives as well as policy experts to help inform the development of the bipartisan strategy.

“If America loses its advantage in technology, it will have a devastating effect on our economy and national security,” said Hurd, a 2019 Wash100 Award recipient. “We need a national AI strategy to ensure the U.S. is prepared to lead on technology that will define the course of this century.”

Jason Grumet, president of BPC, added that Congress can help drive AI development while protecting rights to privacy, avoiding bias and “promoting economic and social inclusion” through the establishment of a national AI framework.

The move comes after Hurd and Kelly released a white paper detailing policy recommendations for AI implementation in September 2018.

Students, scholars and professors at the University of Florida have won a radio frequency-focused contest hosted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. DARPA said Thursday that it held the Spectrum Collaboration Challenge’s championship during an event at Mobile World Congress 2019 that took place Oct 22 to 24 in Los Angeles.

The contest sought technologies that use artificial intelligence to better leverage the radio frequency spectrum. The winning team, known as GatorWings, entered an autonomous radio that demonstrated navigation across wireless spectrum obstacles. GatorWings’ AI engine used reinforcement learning techniques to maximize use of available spectrum bits. The team won the contest’s grand prize of $2 million.

“GatorWings really stepped up their design in the final year, they previously finished fifth and sixth in the preliminary tournaments,” said Mr. Paul Tilghman, DARPA’s program manager for SC2. The competition demonstrated the ability of autonomous wireless networks to address limits of spectrum allotment.

Navy Secretary and a 2019 Wash100 Award recipient Richard Spencer said the service branch has a plan in place to improve efforts to help combat cyber threats and those facing the supply chain, Fifth Domain reported Thursday.

“If you look at Sun Tzu, what is one of his rules? Take over the enemy and keep all their assets in tact. That is cyber 101,” Spencer said Wednesday at the Brookings Institution. “I need every single resource I can – and that’s not dollars … it’s gray matter … to combat this.”

He also cited the potential role of the newly created position of special assistant to the secretary of the Navy and chief information officer. Aaron Weis, former senior adviser to the Pentagon’s CIO, assumed the dual-hatted role, which oversees four directorates responsible for the service’s cybersecurity and digital modernization efforts.

Suzette Kent, federal chief information officer and a 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, outlined the current administration’s information technology security priorities for fiscal year 2020 during her keynote speech at CyberTalks Thursday, FedScoop reported. She said cybersecurity is considered by the Trump administration as a “high priority” and is “embedded” in its IT modernization efforts.

Kent mentioned other priorities in the “execution agenda” for FY 2020, including federal identity and access management; increased information sharing and enterprise cyber risk management; the Federal Cyber Reskilling Academy and other talent development efforts; and automated continuous monitoring.

Naval Information Warfare Systems Command has completed a digital model that supports virtual tests with the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. The Digital Lincoln is a digital twin that virtually mirrors five interconnected systems the ship is scheduled to receive in fiscal year 2020, the Navy said Wednesday.

The command is adopting a model-analyze-build approach to virtually test technologies before production, transitioning from the old design-build-test methodology. The new approach also adheres to the Department of Defense Digital Transformation Strategy.

“Digital engineering is vital in modernizing how we design, develop, deliver, operate and sustain systems,” said Pat Sullivan, executive director at NAVWAR.

The digital twin helped NAVWAR identify potential integration issues of the five systems: Distributed Common Ground System, Navy Integrated Tactical Environmental System, Maritime Tactical Command and Control, Global Command and Control System and Agile Core Services.

These systems perform tasks related to intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, command and control, mission planning and connectivity. NAVWAR will uses lessons learned from Digital Lincoln to develop the digital twin model of USS Dwight D. Eisenhower or CVN 69.

Lt. Gen. John Shanahan, the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center’s director and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, said that reliable funding is a challenge as he seeks to recruit military and industry experts for AI research and development, USNI News reported Wednesday.

Shanahan told the publication at a U.S. Naval Institute event that operating the Department of Defense’s AI center under a continuing resolution limits the issuance of new contracts and keeps spending at the level of the previous year.

“There are a lot of people who want to go very quickly with A.I. but we live by five-year budget cycles,” he said.

Missy Cummings, director of the Humans and Autonomy Laboratory and Duke Robotics, added that part of the challenge is how the government lags behind Russia and China as well as its own commercial sector when it comes to AI efforts.

Shanahan noted that he expects AI applications to evolve from simple logistical tasks to more complex actions such as missile system operations and medical treatments over time.