The General Services Administration has begun seeking public comments on a draft document describing the operational framework meant to enable the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program to prioritize CSOs, or cloud service offerings, that utilize emerging technologies during the authorization process.

The draft Emerging Technology Prioritization Framework for FedRAMP will be applied to artificial intelligence, specifically chat interfaces; code generators and debugging tools; and prompt-based image generators, according to a blog post published Friday.

The proposed prioritization framework will not establish additional pathways for authorization and will keep the same rigorous authorization requirements.

GSA wants interested stakeholders to share their thoughts on how FedRAMP can best evaluate whether providing a relevant emerging technology is the “primary purpose” of the CSO.

The agency is asking how the benchmarking process should be structured to ensure that the process is focused on eligibility, which entity should determine which benchmark to adopt and whether the agency needs to release more information about how different benchmarks better apply to specific AI use cases, among others.

Comments on the draft framework are due March 11.

Register here to attend the Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit on March 21 and hear federal leaders and industry experts discuss the latest developments in the field.

Mitre and the Office of Naval Research have developed a small unmanned aerial vehicle prototype that could be used in maritime surveillance, search and rescue and detection of meteorological events.

The drone, dubbed Hopper, comes with small solar cells that could recharge the system while at rest and in flight, Mitre said Friday.

ONR and Mitre used advanced simulation software, computer-aided design and 3D printing technique to design and build the drone, which could be deployed in swarms to perform signals monitoring, marine-life biological research and other maritime missions.

“It’s been inspiring to see Hopper rapidly develop from an idea to flight-capable hardware,” said Lee Mastroianni, program officer for advanced autonomous systems at ONR.

The Mitre-ONR team developed the drone prototype in less than two years.

“This technology works primarily to augment existing maritime surveillance platforms,” said Conor Mahoney, expeditionary group leader at Mitre. “Where normally you’d have to risk a crewed asset or an expensive uncrewed asset to maintain cognizance over a wide ocean area, Hopper can do so at a fraction of the cost—and free up those other assets.”

The team is conducting experiments by integrating satellite transceivers and small radios to test the drone’s communications capability across maritime environments.