/
NIST Opens Application Phase for U.S. AI Safety Institute Consortium
Published on
NIST Opens Application Phase for U.S. AI Safety Institute Consortium

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is inviting organizations with expertise and capabilities in artificial intelligence safety to join its new consortium that aims to foster innovation in AI trustworthiness.

The consortium is part of the U.S. AI Safety Institute, which is led by NIST and aligns with the recent Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of AI, NIST said Thursday.

The safety institute will build on existing projects by NIST and other entities working to ensure the responsible use of AI technologies. The consortium will serve as a venue for information and insight sharing, research and development collaboration and testing and evaluation of prototypes.

Consortium members will enter into cooperative R&D agreements in areas such as AI metrology, human-AI teaming and interaction and economic analysis. They are also expected to contribute in project infrastructure support as well as conferences and events.

NIST will host consortium workshop on Nov. 17, two weeks before its deadline for accepting letters of interest on Dec. 2.

/
Eric Hysen on CIO Office’s Efforts to Advance AI Training for DHS Workforce
Published on
Eric Hysen on CIO Office’s Efforts to Advance AI Training for DHS Workforce

Eric Hysen, chief information officer at the Department of Homeland Security, said DHS is taking a generalized and specific approach to workforce training when it comes to artificial intelligence as part of efforts to advance the responsible use of AI tools, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

“The first is how we train our IT professionals. Across the department there are over 5,000 people we want to be able to build skills around AI data science and related fields to manage software acquisitions and other complex work in this space. That’ll be done as part of the new IT academy that we are standing up across DHS,” Hysen said.

“The second is around AI literacy for the entire DHS workforce. We are still in the early stages, but we are looking to offer AI literacy training to every DHS employee so that they can understand how to use AI systems effectively. They can understand risks posed by unintended bias or hallucinations, and know what how they should be thinking about using the outputs from AI in their work,” he added.

The CIO office has been working on the new IT academy and associated courses in the past 18 months and Hysen said he expects the initial components to come out in early 2024.

Hysen also talked about generative AI and the AI Safety and Security Advisory Board and his office’s efforts to finalize policies to advance AI adoption in support of mission areas.

POC - 2023 Homeland Security Summit

Join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2023 Homeland Security Summit in mid-November to hear government and industry leaders discuss the latest digital transformation efforts to protect and secure the homeland amid evolving global threats. Click here to register.

/
Kathleen Hicks Unveils DOD’s Data, Analytics & AI Adoption Strategy
Published on
Kathleen Hicks Unveils DOD’s Data, Analytics & AI Adoption Strategy

Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary of the Department of Defense and a three-time Wash100 awardee, has launched a strategy meant to help DOD accelerate the adoption of analytics, data and artificial intelligence to speed up the decision-making process on the battlefield.

The Chief Digital and AI Office developed the 2023 Data, Analytics and AI Adoption Strategy in collaboration with other DOD offices, the department said Thursday.

“As we’ve focused on integrating AI into our operations responsibly and at speed, our main reason for doing so has been straightforward: because it gives us even better decision advantage than we already have today,” Hicks said.

The strategy describes an agile approach to AI adoption to scale five decision advantage outcomes: superior battlespace awareness and understanding; adaptive force planning and application; fast, precise and resilient kill chains; resilient sustainment support; and efficient enterprise business operations.

The document outlines DOD’s strategic goals to meet its “AI hierarchy of needs,” which includes quality data, governance, insightful analytics and metrics, assurance and responsible AI.

The strategic goals are strengthening governance and removing policy barriers; delivering capabilities for enterprise business and joint warfighting impact; improving foundational data management; investing in interoperable, federated infrastructure; advancing the data, analytics and AI ecosystem; and expanding digital talent management.

“Accelerating the adoption of advanced data, analytics, and artificial intelligence technologies presents an unprecedented opportunity to equip Department leaders, at all levels, with the data they need, to make better decisions faster, from the boardroom to the battlefield,” said Craig Martell, head of CDAO.

“Our strategic approach prioritizes an agile approach to adoption by focusing on the fundamentals of speed, agility, responsibility, and learning,” added Martell, a 2023 Wash100 awardee.

/
Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier on Machine-Assisted Analytic Rapid-Repository System
Published on
Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier on Machine-Assisted Analytic Rapid-Repository System

U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and a 2023 Wash100 awardee, said an artificial intelligence-assisted, cloud-based database designed to capture all-source intelligence data is expected to reach initial operational capability in the spring of 2024, Breaking Defense reported Wednesday.

The Machine-Assisted Analytic Rapid-Repository System — a.ka. MARS — will replace the Military Intelligence Integrated Database and is expected to achieve full operational capability in 2025, according to Berrier.

The MARS platform “takes everything that’s in MIDB, but infuses it with the tools that we have available today from all of those sources. And so not only a satellite image and a description, but you will have a map database infused with lots of different open source data points that will tell you what’s going on there — information that we can buy, other information that we can steal,” Berrier said during a fireside chat with the Center for Strategic and International Security.

“And it gives analysts through alarms and tippers ways to analyze what’s happening and techniques that we haven’t used before,” he added.

The DIA director also touched upon the importance of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in the agency’s mission and shared his insights on the role of DIA in strategic competition with China and significance of intelligence sharing with allies and other partners.

/
Senate Passes Bipartisan Bills to Support Commercial Launches, Reduce Space Junk
Published on
Senate Passes Bipartisan Bills to Support Commercial Launches, Reduce Space Junk

The Senate has passed bipartisan bills aimed at establishing U.S. leadership in the space domain by fostering commercial space innovation and reducing space junk in orbit.

“We can’t let space junk and red tape stifle American innovations that are lifting us to new frontiers in space. Our bills will help our country maintain space leadership,” the bills’ sponsor Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., said in a statement published Wednesday.

The Orbital Sustainability Act aims to establish a research, development and demonstration program to remove the nearly 1 million pieces of orbital debris that pose risks to U.S. space assets and astronauts.

Meanwhile, the Launch Communications Act seeks to modernize the Federal Communications Commission’s current spectrum licensing process for commercial space launch missions to keep pace with the increasing demand for commercial launches that support national security objectives.

Both pieces of legislation secured approval from the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

/
Marie Bussiere Appointed Technical Director of NUWC Division Newport
Published on
Marie Bussiere Appointed Technical Director of NUWC Division Newport

Marie Bussiere, digital transformation executive for the deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development test and engineering since October 2021, has been named technical director of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport.

She will assume her new post in January and succeed Ron Vien, who retired in March after nearly 36 years of service in the U.S. Navy, Naval Sea Systems Command said Wednesday.

Rebecca Chhim, acting technical director of NUWC Division Newport, will remain in the role through December.

Prior to her current role, Bussiere was head of the Undersea Warfare Combat Systems Department for nine years and led the planning and implementation of a spectrum program for submarine combat systems.

Bussiere previously headed the Department of the Navy Modeling and Simulation Office, the Undersea Weapons Acquisition and Life Cycle Engineering Division within the Torpedo Systems Department and the Logistics Product Development Branch within the USW Combat Systems Department.

She also served as logistics career field manager for the Naval Acquisition Development Program and NAVSEA’s Live, Virtual, Constructive Modeling and Simulation Knowledge Point Champion.

NSF Selects Research Projects to Develop Secure AI Technologies
Published on
NSF Selects Research Projects to Develop Secure AI Technologies

The National Science Foundation has unveiled the 11 research projects to receive $10.9 million in funding to support the development and implementation of safe and resilient machine learning systems.

NSF said Tuesday the Safe Learning-Enabled Systems program was launched in partnership with Open Philanthropy and Good Ventures to fund foundational research projects that aim to create secure autonomous systems and generative artificial intelligence models.

The selected research projects include the development of safety-aware machine learning algorithms and methodologies, foundational technologies for safe learning-enabled systems based on distributional reinforcement learning techniques and a specification-guided, perception-enabled reinforcement learning framework.

“NSF’s commitment to studying how we can guarantee the safety of AI systems sends a clear message to the AI research community: We consider safety paramount to the responsible expansion and evolution of AI,” said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan.

//
Army Issues RFI for Project Linchpin AI Bill of Materials
Published on
Army Issues RFI for Project Linchpin AI Bill of Materials

The project manager for intelligence and analytics within the U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office – Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors is seeking industry input regarding ways to implement and automate an artificial intelligence bill of materials, or AIBOM, for Project Linchpin, whose aim is to establish a pipeline that would develop AI and machine learning solutions for PEO IEW&S sensor programs.

An AIBOM would work to identify potential vulnerabilities in an AI model by tracking key information about its components, including its software supply chain, details about the model itself and the lineage of the data used to train the model, according to a request for information posted on SAM.gov.

The pertinent information would have to be extracted automatically from relevant sources in order to make an AIBOM viable.

Interested parties have until Dec. 1 to respond.

/
FBI Director Christopher Wray: Homegrown Violent Extremists Are the Greatest Terrorism Threat to US
Published on
FBI Director Christopher Wray: Homegrown Violent Extremists Are the Greatest Terrorism Threat to US

Homegrown individual or small extremist cells that exploit online violence are the biggest terrorism threat to the United States, FBI Director Christopher Wray said during a Senate hearing.

In a statement presented Tuesday before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Wray warned that adversaries are taking advantage of modern technology to commit crimes, from cyber attacks to disinformation and weapon construction.

He discussed the growing number of domestic and homegrown violent extremists, which operate within the U.S. or its territories to mobilize disorder and other unlawful acts through social media and online platforms. He clarified that the FBI is using all the tools applicable to fight domestic terrorism.

The agency is also continuing to combat hostile foreign intelligence services and operatives, especially amid conflicts in the Middle East.

“We continually adapt and rely heavily on the strength of our federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, and international partnerships to combat all terrorist threats to the United States and our interests,” Wray stated. Using lawful investigative techniques, the agency maintains efforts “to collect, analyze, and share intelligence concerning the threats posed by violent extremists who desire to harm Americans and U.S. interests,” told lawmakers.

The Potomac Officers Club is participating in the national security conversation as the host of the 2023 Homeland Security Summit, which takes place on Nov. 15. Register now to join the event.

POC - 2023 Homeland Security Summit
/
DHS Develops Cybersecurity Readiness Metric for Potential Contract Awardees
Published on
DHS Develops Cybersecurity Readiness Metric for Potential Contract Awardees

The Department of Homeland Security finalized a new metric for assessing the cybersecurity readiness of prospective contract awardees.

The Cybersecurity Readiness Factor resulted from the statistical analysis of the 2023 Cyber Hygiene Assessment Instrument Questionnaire, and involves meeting the National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publications 800-171r2 and 800-172 on information security, DHS stated in a notice published Wednesday on SAM.gov.

The metric divides readiness into three levels of likelihood, based on whether they have partially, fully or not satisfied security requirements. For fiscal year 2024, DHS set the objective baseline at fifteenth percentile. The contractor’s resulting percentile will be sent to the DHS contracting officer for review during the pre-award stage.

DHS is inviting industry feedback on the Cybersecurity Readiness Factor until Nov. 17.

On Nov. 15, the Potomac Officers Club is hosting the 2023 Homeland Security Summit to shine a light on today’s most pressing U.S. security issues. Register now to join the event.

POC - 2023 Homeland Security Summit
1 … 512 513 514 515 516 … 2,700