The Wrap: Best Career Advice Ever; How to Fund AI Pilots; Where AI Meets Zero Trust

Welcome to The Wrap for Friday, May 17!

From the newsroom at MeriTalk, it’s the quickest read in Federal tech news. Here’s what you need to know today:

Best Career Advice Ever

Last night’s MeriTalk?Tech Tonic in Old Town Alexandria offered up top-notch advice for women in technology from three of the very best who spoke about their own paths to the heights and the many lessons learned along the way. Big thanks to U.S. Department of Justice CIO Melinda Rogers, Defense Information Systems Agency 's Sharon Woods, and former United States Marine Corps CISO Renata Spinks for all of the truth about keeping faith, refusing to opt out, becoming a problem solver, giving your all, fighting through fears, and sorting out mentors and champions. And that’s just scratching the surface, so please click through to meritalk.com for the full story. If you were there with us, you know how the room lit up, and if you couldn’t make it, we hope to see you next time out.

How to Fund AI Pilots

Federal agency offices with great ideas for starting AI-driven pilot projects need help along the way, and one of those is enough money to get the ball rolling. One Federal agency CIO is making that happen with modest seed capital for AI projects generated with money saved from moving legacy systems into the cloud. That was practical advice offered by U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) CIO Guy Cavallo, who said on Thursday at the Box Government Summit that’s he spreading around $5,000 chunks for employees who want to test out their AI ideas in tech sandboxes. “I’m giving everybody about a $5,000 sandbox as the max that they can spend until I say, ‘I need more money from you,’” the CIO said. “Because it wasn’t in the budget. I didn’t put AI in my budget two and a half years ago when I had to submit this budget – nobody did, we put $0 in our budget. So, I’m using some of our cloud savings to be able to fund sandboxes.” Helping the process along, he said, is the AI steering committee at the agency that helps approve or deny proofs of concepts for AI tools. Cavallo, who is unabashedly cloud-forward, also dropped that OPM recently moved its USAJobs site to the cloud. “They used to be on-premise in Macon, Georgia,” he said. “It’s now in the cloud where it’s redundant, it’s running faster. And if any of you are applying for jobs, you’ll be applying to the cloud.”

Where AI Meets Zero Trust

How does AI tech fit into the push toward zero trust security? If you ask U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) CIO Ann Dunkin, the answer would be potentially pretty well, but there are also a few big concerns to consider along the way. Those include complexity, Dunkin explained at the Box Government Summit this week, where she said, “any tool adds complexity, AI tools add a tremendous amount of overhead,?[and] we’re?all struggling with how in the heck we’re?going to manage all these AI tools.” Alongside that is ensuring security of AI systems that feed into the larger security enterprise. If an AI architecture is compromised, attackers?“could potentially manipulate security protocols or create openings in the very security framework that is protecting the AI model,” the CIO said. “We’ve?got to figure out how to make sure?that that?using AI is a useful tool and it?doesn’t?end up being a risk to our ongoing operations,”?she emphasized. Bottom line: “The risks it presents?are significant,” she said, as are “the opportunities to make us more secure and … help us better understand our landscape to help us identify anomalies more quickly.” With those factors in mind, “I would strongly encourage you to use AI rather than to avoid AI,”?Dunkin said.

Air Force Cyber Nominee

President Biden is nominating Maj. Gen. Thomas Hensley to lead the United States Air Force ’s information warfare command, and specifically its 16th Air Force (Air Force Cyber) – the service branch’s integrated information warfare organization that is being elevated to greater responsibilities for cyber operations.

If confirmed to the post by the United States Senate , Hensley would oversee the command’s efforts including cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and electromagnetic spectrum operations. He would take over from Lt. Gen. Kevin Kennedy, who has served in the role since the summer of 2022. Hensley would also pin his third star with the promotion to lieutenant general. Hensley currently serves as the deputy commander for the 16th Air Force Command.

Once again, let’s “call IT a day,” but we'll bring you more on Monday. Until then please check the MeriTalk breaking news website throughout the day for the latest on government IT people, process, and policy. And finally, please hit the news tip jar [with leads, breaking news, or simply your two cents] at [email protected].