The Wrap: Easterly Sounds AI Alarm; New VA Delay; IRS Maps IT Mod

Welcome to The Wrap for Friday, April 7!

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

Easterly Sounds Alarm on AI Regs

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Jen Easterly warned on Thursday that the United States needs to quickly determine the regulatory landscape for development of AI technologies, which she said have the potential to become the most consequential – and perhaps dangerous – technologies of the 21st century. The CISA director said during an Atlantic Council event that there’s plenty at stake for the U.S. and the world. “Frankly, I’m not sure that we are thinking about the downstream safety consequences of how fast this is moving and how bad people like terrorists” can use tech capabilities for “weaponization of cyber, a weaponization of genetic engineering, weaponization of biotech,” she said. “I have been trying hard to think about how we can implement certain controls around how this technology starts to proliferate in a very accelerated way,” Easterly said, adding, “I think this is the biggest issue that we’re going to deal with this century.”

VA’s New EHRM Delay

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced it is delaying the deployment of its Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program at the VA Saginaw Healthcare System in Michigan, saying that the new EHR system is “not yet ready” for the scheduled go-live this summer. The deployment has been scheduled for June 17, but the EHRM tech is still not quite right, VA’s Laura Ruzick told us. “As VA leadership has promised, we will not deploy the new EHR system at any facility until we are confident it is ready to deliver for Veterans and VA providers,” she said.

IRS Maps IT Mod

The IRS went public this week with more details of its plans to modernize agency operations with the nearly $80 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act passed last year, according to the strategy the tax agency?released?on Thursday. Tech items catching our eye in the ten-year plan: legacy systems are on the way out, modern systems are on the way in, and data privacy and security are listed as top priorities. On the numbers front, business systems modernization will get an estimated $4.8 billion, with $3.2 billion for taxpayer services, and $25.3 billion for operations support.

GAO Prods Pentagon on Software Modernization

While the Department of Defense (DoD) has taken some actions to modernize its software technologies, policies, and workforce, the Pentagon needs to do more to reach its software modernization goals, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO)?report.?The watchdog said DoD hasn’t taken full action to address 17 software-related recommendations from studies undertaken since 2018. One example: “while DoD has enhanced training for its software workforce, it has yet to establish a cadre of software developers,” GAO said.?The report generated some pushback from DoD, but GAO is sticking to its guns, saying, “the steps outlined in DoD’s written comments are not likely to fully address challenges that we identified in the report.”

Reg Reviews – Don’t Flood the Zone with AI Comments

President Joe Biden?signed?an executive order (EO) on modernizing regulatory review policies this week, with an emphasis on making the process more equitable and inclusive. The April 6 directive aims to fold more considerations for underserved communities and state, local, territorial, and Tribal agencies into the regulatory review process. The EO follows up on a?memorandum President Biden?signed?on his first day?in office. Notable on the tech front: the order urges action to prevent a flood of “mass comments, computer-generated comments (such as those generated through artificial intelligence), and falsely attributed comments” of the type seen in the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality proceeding in 2017, which drew a whopping 24 million comments. A study later found that millions of the comments were fake, including ones that were deliberately filed using other people’s email addresses, including those of senators, journalists, and dead people.

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 cent) at?[email protected].

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