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DHS Using Generative AI to Train Officers
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DHS Using Generative AI to Train Officers

An artificial intelligence pilot launched by the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S.  Citizenship and Immigration Services is using generative AI to train officers to facilitate screenings with individuals seeking refugee status, Nexgov said Thursday.

Interviews typically run for about three hours, with new officer training requiring tenured workers to play the part of refugees in simulated interviews.

Michael Boyce, director of the DHS AI Corps, said these mock interviews will replicate real-life conversations they are likely to have with refugee seekers.

“Generative AI will pretend to be a refugee applicant and give them answers, new answers, to practice the three hour long interview with an automated system,” Boyce stated.

The DHS supports USCIS’ use of generative AI, stating the agency will, “Generate dynamic, personalized training materials that adapt to officers’ specific needs and ensure the best possible knowledge and training on a wide range of current policies and laws relevant to their jobs.”

The agency also said the hallucinations and inaccuracies that genAI tech can produce could be of benefit in these training sessions, as working with an interpreter means “there’s a lot of confusion and a lot of sort of dropped things, or things that don’t quite line up or make perfect sense,” according to Boyce.

The pilot was first launched in March and is one of three new cases the agency has produced to examine the advantages of AI.

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Marine Corps Unveils AI Strategy
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Marine Corps Unveils AI Strategy

The U.S. Marine Corps has released a new strategy that provides a framework for integrating artificial intelligence across the service branch to speed up the decision-making process and achieve decision advantage in littoral and expeditionary base operations in contested environments.

USMC said Wednesday its AI Strategy has five goals that contain the required objectives to meet its vision for AI: AI mission alignment, AI competent workforce, AI deployment at scale, AI governance and partnerships and collaboration.

To achieve the goal of AI mission alignment, the service should capture highler-level priorities within the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy and the Commandant of the Marine Corps for priority use cases to align effort and evaluate use cases based on service requirements to understand where AI can be used to address mission challenges.

To build a competent AI workforce, USMC should leverage the current talent within the service branch to conduct stop-gap training and education on AI and modernize areas where technology can help streamline operations.

The strategy also calls on the service to develop a culture of data literacy and stewardship, modernize data management and advance cybersecurity to deploy AI technologies at scale.

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Air Force Seeking Potential Group 3 Drone Providers for Adaptive Airborne Enterprise
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Air Force Seeking Potential Group 3 Drone Providers for Adaptive Airborne Enterprise

The U.S. Air Force is conducting market research to identify potential sources of a Group 3 small unmanned aircraft system that can carry and deploy Group 2 sUAS equipped with an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance payload.

According to a notice posted on SAM .gov on Wednesday, the swarm carrier drone should be ready within two to three years to support the Air Force Special Operations Command’s Adaptive Airborne Enterprise, or A2E, concept, which aims to have a single airman controlling multiple UAS.

The military branch requires the Group 3 aircraft, which will be air-dropped from a C-130, to be built using a modular open systems architecture approach to enable future upgrades.

Responses to the request for information are due Aug. 9.

According to the document, the Air Force may decide to hold one-on-one meetings with industry partners based on their responses to the RFI.

The military service intends to post additional A2E-focused RFIs for a Group 2 ISR drone and a Group 3 “signature managed” UAS, an aircraft with stealth qualities to avoid detection.

Join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Air Defense Summit on July 23 to hear important updates on Air Force cutting-edge technology adoption, modernization initiatives and more. Register here.

POC - 2024 Air Defense Summit
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HHS Releases Proposed Rule to Improve Healthcare Interoperability, Information-sharing
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HHS Releases Proposed Rule to Improve Healthcare Interoperability, Information-sharing

The Department of Health and Human Services will seek public comments on its proposed rule for improving interoperability and information sharing among patients, providers, payers and public health authorities.

The Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: Patient Engagement, Information Sharing, and Public Health Interoperability, or HTI-2, proposes two sets of new certification criteria developed with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to enhance data exchange, public health response and healthcare delivery, the HHS said Wednesday.

The health IT for public health-oriented certification criteria was designed to support the CDC’s Data Modernization Initiative while the health IT for payer-oriented certification criteria was developed to support technical requirements included in the CMS Interoperability and Prior Authorization final rule.

The HTI-2 would require the adoption of United States Core Data for Interoperability version 4 by January 1, 2028, and the implementation of a new, real-time prescription benefit tool certification criterion, which would allow providers and patients to compare the cost of patient-specific medication and suitable alternatives to make more informed decisions.

Other proposals include adopting technology and standard updates from the HTI-1 final rule, revising information blocking regulations and establishing certain Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement governance rules.

The HHS will accept comments on the proposed rule for 60 days once the HTI-2 is published in the Federal Register.

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CISA, FBI Call on Software Makers to Address OS Command Injection Security Flaws
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CISA, FBI Call on Software Makers to Address OS Command Injection Security Flaws

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI have released a cyber advisory calling on software companies to address operating system command injection vulnerabilities before shipping their products.

The alert was issued in response to recent attacks that exploited multiple OS command injection security flaws in network edge devices to compromise users, CISA said Wednesday.

The agency warned that the vulnerabilities provide an opportunity for threat actors to remotely execute code on targeted network devices.

However, CISA added that OS command injection vulnerabilities can be eliminated at the source by taking a “secure by design approach.”

The agency urged software vendors to validate and sanitize user input when constructing commands to execute OS commands, noting that such practice reduces potential risks to customers.

CISA and the FBI also advised technology manufacturers to study previous cyber incidents involving OS command injection vulnerabilities and develop a plan to eliminate future threats.

In addition, tech leaders can review threat models, employ modern component libraries and implement aggressive adversarial product testing to prevent such vulnerabilities.

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Lynelle McKay Named CHIPS Program Office Chief Portfolio Management Officer
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Lynelle McKay Named CHIPS Program Office Chief Portfolio Management Officer

The Department of Commerce has appointed Lynelle McKay, a more than two-decade semiconductor industry veteran, as chief portfolio management officer of the CHIPS Program Office.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology said Wednesday McKay will work with CHIPS Act awardees and other industry stakeholders and oversee fund management to facilitate the implementation of the CHIPS for America program.

McKay most recently served as a senior relationship director within the CHIPS Program Office.

Previously, her private sector career included senior leadership positions at Freescale Technologies and Motorola.

“The semiconductor industry is one of the world’s most complex ecosystems, and I look forward to working with our award recipients, applicants, and key stakeholders to continue implementing this once-in-a-generation industrial policy program,” McKay said.

To date, the CHIPS for America program has announced nearly $30 billion in proposed funding through a dozen preliminary memoranda of terms as part of efforts to strengthen the U.S. semiconductor industry.

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Marcus Tepaske Named New Technical Director at ONR Global
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Marcus Tepaske Named New Technical Director at ONR Global

Marcus Tepaske has taken on the role of technical director at the U.S. Office of Naval Research Global.

In his new role, Tepaske will lead a team of over 50 scientists, technologists and engineers to find and deliver technologies that will address the challenges faced by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, according to a news article posted Wednesday on the Navy website.

Before being named ONR Global technical director, Tepaske served as science director based in Singapore. He assumed that position in 2022.

Tepaske had also served as ONR Global experimentation and analysis director from 2018 through 2021.

His career has also seen him take on various roles at Naval Surface Warfare Center, the Office of Naval Research, II Marine Expeditionary Force and U.S. Fleet Forces Command.

ONR Global Commanding Officer Capt. Andy Berner praised Tepaske for his experience and expertise, adding, “With a strong background working at ONR, and a long history of building productive partnerships, he is poised to make even more significant contributions to our mission.”

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DARPA’s GRYPHON Program Researchers Establish Viability of Achieving Compact, Ultra-Low-Noise Microwave Sources
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DARPA’s GRYPHON Program Researchers Establish Viability of Achieving Compact, Ultra-Low-Noise Microwave Sources

Researchers demonstrated the viability of developing microchip-size, ultra-low-noise microwave frequency oscillators under the first phase of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Generating Radio Frequency with Photonic Oscillator for Low Noise, or GRYPHON, program.

DARPA said Wednesday the GRYPHON program, introduced in January 2022, seeks to develop ultra-low-noise microwave sources that could be deployed on mobile platforms to support communication and sensing applications.

“The results and impact from Phase 1 of GRYPHON really show what’s possible. For the first time, we’re seeing how integrated photonics allows us to break from the traditional size vs. performance vs. capability trade space and operate in a regime with exquisite performance that is exponentially better than current state of the art,” said Justin Cohen, GRYPHON program manager.

“Better and faster communications, more accurate sensing, improved detection capabilities – this work could disrupt and advance countless applications,” added Cohen.

According to DARPA, researchers in the initial phase used high-speed integrated circuits and different light-based approaches. They also integrated low-noise lasers with optical structures on low-loss photonic systems.

Under Phase 2, program researchers are working to further reduce phase noise and shrink the capabilities to targeted form factors while achieving tunability.

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Los Alamos National Laboratory, OpenAI Partner to Assess Biosecurity Risks Involving Artificial Intelligence
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Los Alamos National Laboratory, OpenAI Partner to Assess Biosecurity Risks Involving Artificial Intelligence

A study will be conducted by Los Alamos National Laboratory and OpenAI that seeks to evaluate the risks of advanced artificial intelligence being used to bring about biological threats.

The study will assess how well frontier AI models could assist in the successful completion of real-world biological tasks, LANL said Wednesday.

The work will involve the use of ChatGPT-4o and OpenAI’s Preparedness Framework, which helps with the tracking, evaluation and forecasting of emerging biological risks. The framework also helps with protecting against such threats.

Also, whereas previous similar efforts only involved text-based model inputs and outputs, the upcoming study will feature multimodal data.

Commenting on the partnership, Erick LeBrun, research scientist at Los Alamos noted that “measuring and understanding any potential dangers or misuse of advanced AI related to biological threats remain largely unexplored.”

“This work with OpenAI is an important step towards establishing a framework for evaluating current and future models, ensuring the responsible development and deployment of AI technologies,” LeBrun said.

The evaluation will also support the Biden administration’s Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence.

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OUSD R&E Holds AI Defense Technical Review
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OUSD R&E Holds AI Defense Technical Review

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering hosted an Artificial Intelligence Defense Technical Review to facilitate strategic cooperation on automated tech and AI throughout the joint global forces.

The second annual DTR event provided breakout sessions on joint command and control, or C2, at the tactical edge, AI orchestration at operational scale, reliance on federated AI and what lies ahead for federated AI in defense, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Kim Sablon, OUSD’s principal director for trusted AI and autonomy, discussed some of the conference’s notable achievements.

“One of significant outcomes from this year’s event included the roll out of the AI Passport concept as a new distributed Artificial Intelligence federation framework, which enables multi-party software co-development,” said Sablon.

The DTR event introduced multi-agent-based C2 on-demand construction to support interconnected and coalition C2 AI programs. The conference also emphasized the need for continuous loop oversight and modernization of AI archetypes.

On the opening day of the conference, Radha Plumb, the Pentagon’s chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, gave opening remarks. This was followed by a fireside chat with Michael Foster, chief data officer of U.S. Central Command, and Maynard Holiday, assistant secretary of defense for critical technologies, to discuss the benefits and challenges of joint AI.

“DTR provided an opportunity for the community to participate in a discussion on the future of AI integration in defense operations and implementing a networked force powered by scalable AI solutions,” said Sablon. “The discussions are of critical importance to national security, informing the development of responsible and ethical use of AI in defense operations.”

Speakers included experts, researchers and leaders from organizations like Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, IBM and CENTCOM.

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