The Wrap: CX Chief for OMB; Three AI Takes from Dell Tech Forum; 43 DoD Zero Trust Plans

Welcome to The Wrap for Tuesday, October 24! ??

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

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CX Chief for OMB?

If a bipartisan group of House lawmakers has anything to do it, then the answer to that question may be yes. Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., Byron Donalds, R-Fla., Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., and William Timmons, R-S.C. have introduced their Government Service Delivery Improvement Act that, if it becomes law, would direct the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to create a new senior management post at the agency to focus on customer experience improvements. Perhaps more impactful for improving Federal agency CX, the bill also would put agency heads on the hook for those same goals by declaring them “responsible for improving government services, building better trust with the public, and designating a senior agency official to drive changes,” Rep. Khanna’s office said. The California Democrat previewed the gist of the legislation late last year MeriTalk’s?New & Next: Government Tech Renaissance?where he said he was writing a bill to create a Federal government chief design officer “to have all of the government agencies have design where the consumer experience is center.” Similarly-themed?legislation?was introduced in the Senate earlier this month by Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., with a markup by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee set for tomorrow.

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Dell Tech Forum: AI Take One – DHS Concerns

Dimitri Kusnezov, under secretary for the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said at today’s Dell Technology Forum in Washington that he’s both excited at the potential of AI tech, but also concerned about adversaries that can leverage AI not only for cyberattacks but also to undermine democracy and attack critical infrastructure. “I worry a lot about the adversarial side of AI,” Kusnezov said. “It is beyond a cyber problem as we worry about things like a transnational repression of undermining democratic institutions.” Just last month, DHS released its annual?Homeland Threat Assessment report for 2024, which said adversaries will leverage AI to create more believable misinformation campaigns and use the emerging technology to develop more evasive cyberattacks on U.S. critical infrastructure. Kusnezov co-chairs the DHS Artificial Intelligence Task Force – which Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas?established?in April – alongside DHS Chief Information Officer (CIO) Eric Hysen. As DHS is thinking about these very real threats, Kusnezov said that the task force also is looking to report on future AI opportunities. He said to expect the task force to have more to report next year.

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Dell Tech Forum: AI Take Two – Trad vs. Gen

One of the best steps that organizations can take when evaluating how, when, and whether to use artificial intelligence technology is to get a firm handle on the differences between traditional AI technologies and newer generative AI tools, and then consider the best uses for both. That was a bottom-line message from technology and innovation expert Mitch Joel who said at today’s Dell Technologies Forum that both flavors of the technology “are somewhat different even though people think they’re the same.” Here’s a short cut from Joel for Wrap readers: traditional AI “is really building an infrastructure and a future of how we are embedded with technology. And generative AI is more about how we will work day-in and day-out.” He continued, “I think that generative AI part is the real challenge for most businesses. And I think especially if you’re working in government, it’s a higher hurdle” due in part to longer development times typical for the public sector, Joel said.

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Dell Tech Forum: AI Take Three – Policies Promoting Trust

With the Biden administration’s executive order on artificial intelligence technology perhaps only days from its official release, AI sector stalwarts said at today’s Dell Technology Forum that they are craving a policy framework that serves to increase transparency and public trust in the technology. “We should start thinking about transparency and disclosure,” said John Roese, the global chief technology officer at Dell Technologies. The goal of AI policy, Roese said, should be “to increase transparency and trust between the AI systems and humanity that’s using them.” Greg Myers, operating partner at Cota Capital and former vice president of Federal for Microsoft, agreed with Roese, noting that AI policy should be viewed in a positive light. “I think great policy that encourages trust and clarity is kerosene for innovation. It’s not a hindrance. It’s not a headwind,” Myers said. “Clarity would really help spark this thing.” Added Hodan Omaar, a senior policy analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation’s (ITIF) Center for Data Innovation, “one of the things that kind of underlies good policymaking is a good understanding of the technology, a good understanding of what problems we should even try to be solving.”

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Pentagon Weighing 43 Zero Trust Plans

The Defense Department’s (DoD) Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office headed by Randy Resnick is getting busy with evaluating no less than 43 zero trust security implementation plans offered up by military service branches, components, and defense agencies by DoD’s Oct. 23 deadline. The turnaround on those will be fast – by Dec. 31 – Resnick said this week at a GovExec event. “Those 43 implementation plans [under review] are going to explain how to achieve target-level zero trust,” Resnick said. “We delivered to the components the ‘target-level’ zero trust outcomes we want to see in their plans; now they got to deliver the how.” In late 2022, the DoD?released?its?zero trust strategy and roadmap?outlining how the department plans to fully implement a department-wide zero trust cybersecurity framework by fiscal year (FY) 2027.

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Once again, let’s “call IT a day,” but we'll bring you more tomorrow. Until then please check the MeriTalk breaking news website throughout the day for the latest on government IT people, process, and policy.

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