AI Application in Government

A few weeks ago at the Potomac Officer’s Club 4th Annual AI Summit, discussion swirled among government and industry speakers and attendees on AI’s application across the federal space. At the introduction of one of the event’s panels, moderator Todd Borkey from HII stated that applications in AI are plentiful, spanning science, health, and digital twins as examples.

In that same panel, Anthony Zech from ECS stated that there is ripe opportunity for AI at the strategic level of cyber operations by analyzing trends and discerning different types of threats to help make risk management decisions. Brendan McElrone echoed AI’s application in the federal space and stated that AI application for the warfighter is critical when pushed out to the edge to distill data and allow for real-time decision-making.

Dr. Bill Streilein, Chief Technology Officer for the Office of the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office at DOD also stated that AI is more prevalent on the enterprise side of DOD. He foresees AI spreading from operations and logistics and then out to the warfighter at the department.

From Deltek’s Artificial Intelligence Landscape, 2023 report, we identified several AI use cases in the federal government:

Overall, it can be assumed that AI is poised to change a breadth of operations across federal agencies. The following are recent examples of how AI is being used in the federal space.

Healthcare

Last month, GSA launched the Applied AI Healthcare Challenge seeking solutions to help agencies improve medical care administration. The challenge focuses on applying AI to improve mental health, the addiction and opioid epidemic, health equity, supply chain, and cancer.

Fraud

HHS CIO, Karl Matthias, described the launch of a successful AI pilot to help the department address Medicare fraud. The pilot uses tree-based AI models and deep learning to help identify fraud among one million CMS transactions per day. According to FedScoop reporting on the initiative, the tree-based AI models allow for faster identification of new variances in fraud activity.

Acquisition

According to an article by Federal News Radio, DOD is using AI to increase efficiency of acquisition processes at the department. Specifically, DOD is testing an AI-power contract writing solution called Acqbot.com. The solution generates text, to help in areas such as building a problem statement for contracting officials. The solution will take part in accelerating the acquisition process for other AI technologies under DOD’s Tradewind Solutions Marketplace.

Manufacturing

NASA is using AI to design spacecraft and mission hardware, according to an announcement last month. Commercially available AI software is used to produce complex structures for the Exoplanet Climate Infrared Telescope (EXCITE) mission. Engineers found the AI software helped produce hardware that weighs less, tolerates higher structural loads, decreases stress factors, and significantly shortens design and production time.

It is without a doubt that an AI presence will increase within the federal government. OMB’s memo on FY 2024 R&D priorities reveals the emphasis that will be placed on AI in future government programs. Accordingly, we will likely see a growth and emphasis in AI with the upcoming FY 2024 budget request, set to be released this month.