The Wrap: DIA Chafing for AI; Sprucing up Data Management; DoD’s EHR Problems

Welcome to The Wrap for Friday, April 19!

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

DIA Chafing for AI

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is on the prowl for AI-driven automation improvements, but finding that the path toward that goal is cluttered with a culture of caution to rapidly adopting new technologies. “I think AI can really contribute into network configuration and edge computing,” said DIA Chief Financial Officer Steven Rush on April 17 at a UiPath conference. “God forbid we get into some sort of conflict or hostilities with China – edge computing is going to be critical and using AI to be able to configure networks at the edge is going to be critical, as well as monitoring the network,” Rush said. Yet DIA still remains in “the infancy of our AI journey,” he said. “We used [automation and robotics] to transition travel voucher statements from our unclassified side to the high side, that has just barely scratched the surface. I want for the day when we’re living and working in the live dashboards,” Rush said. Part of the adoption challenge also involves competing priorities between IT and other technology investments, Rush explained.

AI Sprucing up Data Management

Officials with the 美国国务院 and Office of Management and Budget explained this week that the push toward adoption of AI technologies is having another positive effect: providing incentives for better data management. Matthew Graviss, the State Department’s Chief Data and AI Officer, explained it this way during remarks at the GovernmentDX conference on April 18: “With the explosion of interest … in artificial intelligence, we’ve leveraged that to say ‘Great, you want AI? We’ve got to get the data good.’ And it goes hand in hand,” he added. “That’s been our focus is leveraging the AI hype within the department to not only do AI, solve business problems, strengthen our diplomatic platform, but also use that interest to improve data at a lower level.” Conrad Stosz, director of AI at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), agreed, and explained that getting good data is crucial to adopting AI technologies. “It’s not a secret that a lot of organizations still face pretty foundational data challenges,” he said, adding, “but I think what we’re seeing across the board is a lot of progress.”

GAO Flags DoD EHR Problems

Usually it’s the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs catching it from watchdogs over the state of its electronic healthcare record (EHR) systems, but this time around the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) is telling the United States Department of Defense (DoD) that its new multi-billion dollar EHR system faces a range of problems including poor user satisfaction and integration challenges. Speaking of DoD’s MHS GENESIS EHR system which had its final system deployment last month, GAO said, “although user satisfaction levels are below those for its other relevant systems, DoD has not yet established satisfaction goals. Without goals for improving user satisfaction, the department will be limited in its ability to measure progress, plan for improvements, and ensure the system meets users’ needs.” The watchdog also said DoD and VA still have more to do to integrate their two health records systems.

ODNI CFO

Congrats to Jon Rosenwasser, who has been chosen as the new Intelligence Community Chief Financial Officer (IC CFO) working at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Rosenwasser will oversee the implementation of ODNI’s efforts to develop, determine, and present the National Intelligence Program (NIP) budget to The White House for approval, and will work closely with the Federal government’s 18 intelligence agencies in those tasks. His resume includes prior experience at ODNI serving on the National Intelligence Council and in senior strategy roles, and more recently as budget and policy director on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

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. And finally, please hit the news tip jar [with leads, breaking news, or simply your two cents] at [email protected].