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DOD Co-Funds Institute to Dissect Relationship Between Brain Functions & AI Development; Bindu Nair Quoted
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DOD Co-Funds Institute to Dissect Relationship Between Brain Functions & AI Development; Bindu Nair Quoted

In partnership with the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense has co-funded the creation of a new addition to the former’s National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes initiative.

The $10 million award will support the institute’s team, which is dedicated to progressing unified research in artificial and natural intelligence, in studying brain functions and trustworthy AI development, the DOD announced on Friday.

Bindu Nair, director of the Basic Research Office in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, said that the growing understanding of AI has “transformed the fields of biology and neuroscience” while knowledge surrounding cognition in nature has contributed to progress in the AI field.

“Continued advancement in these areas holds the potential to deliver significant economic impact and further improvements in quality of life,” she added.

A multi-university team led by Columbia University was selected from 15 proposals to receive the funds. In total, the award will amount to approximately $20 million over five years. The institute’s researchers will study the intersection of advancements in neural, biological and cognitive processes and models and mechanisms used in AI development.

The NSF institutes program is intended to drive long-term, high-reward research regarding various AI-related themes, such as next-generation cybersecurity, climate-smart agriculture and forestry, trustworthy AI and AI-augmented learning. This award falls under the program’s DOD-sponsored focus area, which centers the neural and cognitive foundations of AI.

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NSF Invests $140M in 7 New National AI Research Institutes; Sethuraman Panchanathan Quoted
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NSF Invests $140M in 7 New National AI Research Institutes; Sethuraman Panchanathan Quoted

The National Science Foundation is investing $140 million in the development of seven new National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes, which will help the federal government advance its understanding of AI technology’s risks and opportunities.

NSF said Thursday the AI institutes will focus on several AI research areas, including promoting ethical and trustworthy AI technologies, developing novel cybersecurity approaches, enhancing education and public health, providing a better understanding of the human brain and addressing climate change.

The investment effort is part of the Biden administration’s new actions to promote responsible AI innovation in the U.S. while protecting citizens’ rights and safety.

The institutes will be led by the University of Maryland; the University of California, Santa Barbara; the University of Minnesota Twin Cities; Columbia University; Carnegie Mellon University; the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and the University at Buffalo.

“The National AI Research Institutes are a critical component of our Nation’s AI innovation, infrastructure, technology, education, and partnerships ecosystem,” said Sethuraman Panchanathan, director of NSF.

The investment includes support from several federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate and the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.

IBM is also co-funding the initiative.

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David McKeown Says DOD Is Seeking Deeper Insights Into Commercial Cloud Infrastructure
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David McKeown Says DOD Is Seeking Deeper Insights Into Commercial Cloud Infrastructure

David McKeown, acting principal deputy chief information officer at the Department of Defense, said the Pentagon plans to take additional measures—including red teaming and network monitoring—to check the security of commercial cloud environments that host military data, Defense One reported Thursday.

“We’ve had some incidents recently that have shown that we probably need to shore [up] some visibility issues where maybe we do some outside-in looks at the clouds that they built for us,” the 2023 Wash100 awardee said.

In addition to continuous monitoring and reporting by cloud service providers, McKeown wants to “take a deeper look from a red-team perspective inside” their perimeter.

The planned active defense will also involve scanning IP addresses to identify vulnerabilities in various systems.

“We could just do external scans of that and see what’s exposed to the internet. And if it’s vulnerable, and if we find something vulnerable, we would of course, tell them and have them get on that right away. And we would do the same thing on our side of the cloud,” McKeown explained.

A 2023 National Defense Authorization Act provision requires that all defense cloud contracts include provisions allowing DOD to conduct threat assessments for cloud infrastructure housing classified data.

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Lauren Knausenberger: Air Force Eyes Shifting Platform One to Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability
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Lauren Knausenberger: Air Force Eyes Shifting Platform One to Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability

Lauren Knausenberger, chief information officer for the Department of the Air Force and a 2023 Wash100 Award recipient, said the service branch is figuring out how to transition its software development platform into the Department of Defense’s Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability program, Breaking Defense reported Thursday.

“Actually the appetite’s pretty high and I think that would actually be a really good thing because Platform One was envisioned to be a platform that any development team could show up to and have a comprehensive and complementary set of products and services that were well orchestrated to drive mission value across whatever that mission was,” she said Thursday at a conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

“And I think actually a move to JWCC would be perfect,” added Knausenberger, who cited the idea to DOD CIO and fellow Wash100 awardee John Sherman.

She noted that “people will be beating down the door to jump onto JWCC” if the Air Force could address data sovereignty and other issues.

In December, DOD awarded Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft and Oracle positions on the JWCC contract.

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White House Presents Potential Economic Risks of Debt Limit Breach Scenarios
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White House Presents Potential Economic Risks of Debt Limit Breach Scenarios

The White House offered analyses of the potential economic impacts of several debt ceiling scenarios, including a brief default and a protracted default.

An analysis by Moody’s shows that a short debt limit breach could increase the unemployment rate from the current level of 3.5 percent to nearly 5 percent, lead to job losses of nearly 2 million and result in a drop in real gross domestic product, the White House said Wednesday.

The Council of Economic Advisers conducted a simulation of the impact of a protracted default and predicted that the stock market could drop 45 percent by the third quarter of 2023. A protracted default scenario could also harm consumer and business confidence, while unemployment could jump 5 percentage points as companies cut jobs and consumers reduce consumption.

“The ability of households and businesses, especially small businesses, to borrow through the private sector to offset this economic pain would also be compromised. The risks engendered by the default would cause interest rates to skyrocket, including those on the financial instruments that households and businesses use—Treasury bonds, mortgages, and credit card interest rates,” the White House statement reads.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Monday urging Congress to raise or suspend the debt limit before June.

“Given the current projections, it is imperative that Congress act as soon as possible to increase or suspend the debt limit in a way that provides longer-term certainty that the government will continue to make its payments,” Yellen wrote.

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Pentagon AI Chief Craig Martell Warns of Potential Use of AI for Disinformation
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Pentagon AI Chief Craig Martell Warns of Potential Use of AI for Disinformation

Craig Martell, chief digital and artificial intelligence officer at the Department of Defense and a 2023 Wash100 awardee, warned that generative AI language models could be used as the “perfect tool” by adversaries for disinformation, Breaking Defense reported Wednesday.

“Here’s my biggest fear about ChatGPT,” Martell said Wednesday at a conference in Baltimore, Maryland. “It has been trained to express itself in a fluent manner. It speaks fluently and authoritatively. So you believe it even when it’s wrong… And that means it is a perfect tool for disinformation…We really need tools to be able to detect when that’s happening and to be able to warn when that’s happening.”

He called on industry to develop tools that could help ensure the accuracy of information generated from generative AI platforms.

When it comes to his DOD priorities, Martell said he is prioritizing the establishment of a data sharing infrastructure and policies to enable the U.S. military to realize its goals for the Joint All-Domain Command and Control program, according to a report by Defense One.

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Ajay Banga Confirmed as World Bank’s Next President
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Ajay Banga Confirmed as World Bank’s Next President

Ajay Banga, vice chairman of global growth equity firm General Atlantic since December 2021, has received approval to serve as the 14th president of the World Bank for a five-year term beginning June 2.

He will begin his five-year term on June 2, and will work with the board of executive directors on the World Bank Group Evolution process and other initiatives aimed at addressing challenges that developing countries face, the bank said Wednesday.

Banga previously served as president and CEO of Mastercard, honorary chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce and co-chair of the Partnership for Central America. He is a former vice chair of the Economic Club of New York and a co-founder of the Cyber Readiness Institute.

The World Bank’s executive directors confirmed the appointment more than two months after President Joe Biden nominated Banga to lead the Washington, D.C.-based financial institution.

President Biden called Banga a transformative leader who will bring experience, innovation and expertise to the role.

“And together with World Bank leadership and shareholders, he will help steer the institution as it evolves and expands to address global challenges that directly affect its core mission of poverty reduction—including climate change,” Biden said in a statement released Wednesday.

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DOD Wants Feedback on Proposed Changes to Eligibility Criteria for DIB Cybersecurity Program
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DOD Wants Feedback on Proposed Changes to Eligibility Criteria for DIB Cybersecurity Program

The Department of Defense is soliciting public comments on a proposed rule aimed to revise the eligibility criteria for the Defense Industrial Base Cybersecurity Program as part of efforts to encourage more defense contractors to participate in the program and improve the benefits of bilateral information sharing.

DOD is amending the voluntary DIB CS program to align the program description with the updated eligibility requirements, according to a Federal Register notice published Wednesday.

“As a result, references to cleared defense contractors have been replaced with contractors that own or operate a covered contractor information system,” the document reads.

The proposed rule will eliminate the requirement that a company should have an existing facility clearance to at least the Secret level in order for it to be eligible to take part in the program.

According to DOD, the move seeks to help safeguard the department’s controlled unclassified information from cyberattacks and better align the program with DOD’s mandatory cyber incident reporting requirements.

The department has also proposed changes to some definitions, including DIB CS program participant and government furnished information.

Public comments are due June 20.

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ARPA-E Seeks to Advance Green Tech via California Energy Commission Partnership
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ARPA-E Seeks to Advance Green Tech via California Energy Commission Partnership

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy has agreed to cooperate with the California Energy Commission to identify funding opportunities for green technology research and development under a signed memorandum of understanding.

ARPA-E said Wednesday the partnership will work toward achieving tech advancement goals such as energy cost reduction, grid modernization and environmental mitigation.

“This collaboration will accelerate our critical work to research, develop, demonstrate, and ultimately deploy energy technologies,” commented Evelyn Wang, director of ARPA-E.

The two agencies expect their joint effort to benefit the economy and society not only at the state level but also on a national scale.

A prior collaboration supported projects at Halotechnics, Glint Photonics, 24M Technologies, Blackpak, Glint Photonics, Otherlab, EnZinc and several universities.

NSF Solicits Industry Input on Technology R&D Investment Roadmap
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NSF Solicits Industry Input on Technology R&D Investment Roadmap

The National Science Foundation is seeking industry input on developing a roadmap to guide investment decisions of its new technology directorate that aims to advance “use-inspired” research and development of critical and emerging technologies.

The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 mandates that the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships develop an investment roadmap to evaluate funding in 10 critical technology areas, including artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum information science and technology and advanced manufacturing, NSF said Monday.

TIP investments will also support efforts to address challenges in national security, manufacturing and industrial productivity, skills gaps and workforce development, climate change and inequitable access to education.

“Through the creation of a roadmap informed by thoughtful and diverse contributors, we can strategically advance key technology areas, address societal and economic challenges, and strengthen U.S. competitiveness for generations to come,” said Erwin Gianchandani, NSF assistant director for technology, innovation and partnerships.

NSF will accept feedback and comments until July 27.

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