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September 18, 2020 By cs

Pentagon’s central AI office wants to standardize its acquisition process

The Pentagon’s top artificial intelligence office released a request for information Aug. 28 outlining interest in establishing a new acquisition approach for standardizing the development and procurement process for AI tools.

According to the solicitation, the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center is “considering” starting a competition for a 501(c) nonprofit manager or managers of its prototype “Artificial Intelligence Acquisition Business Model” that looks to use other transaction authorities to more quickly purchase AI products.

The JAIC’s prototype business model could deliver “AI capabilities through meaningful market research/front-end collaboration and optimal teaming arrangements of both traditional and non-traditional companies for AI product procurement,” the RFI said. If the plan moves forward, the JAIC would also “explore the possibilities of using the model to enable agile AI acquisition processes to the DoD at scale.”

The JAIC is the Defense Department’s main hub for artificial intelligence and is responsible for increasing adoption of AI across the department. It works with the services and combatant commands to develop AI tools that have practical use.

To meet the military’s needs, the JAIC uses the traditional government contracting process, known as Federal Acquisition Regulation-based contracts, and works with the General Services Administration, the Defense Information Systems Agency and the Defense Innovation Unit. The traditional acquisition strategy currently being used is unlikely sufficient enough to help the JAIC carry out its mission, the RFI stated.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.c4isrnet.com/artificial-intelligence/2020/09/01/pentagons-central-ai-office-wants-to-standardize-its-acquisition-process/

September 17, 2020 By cs

GSA finally pushing price competition to where it belongs: At the task order level

Emily Murphy, the General Services Administration’s administrator, uttered her “famous” words during her nomination hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in October 2017: “We are trying to make sure GSA’s contracting officers and our policies support really vigorous competition at the task order level because that is the amount we actually are going to spend so we want to get the best deal there, the most competition we can there.”

She offered experience, understanding and hope where only previous administrators’ words offered hallowed general concepts before.

If anyone understood the ridiculousness of asking a vendor’s price for something they haven’t seen the requirements for, it was Murphy.

And when Congress blessed the concept of creating an “unpriced multiple award contract” where costs only mattered at each individual task order level in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, many in the acquisition community — including myself — thought the clarion call finally has been heard.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2020/08/gsa-finally-pushing-price-competition-to-where-it-belongs-at-the-task-order-level/

September 16, 2020 By cs

Pentagon, Defense contractors are out of step on tech innovation, GAO finds

The Pentagon wanted to fund ambitious research into future tech breakthroughs but contractors spend most of their money on safer bets, GAO has found.

Two years after the Pentagon set out to spend billions on 10 breakthrough research and engineering efforts, defense contractors instead are putting most of their money in less ambitious research projects.

The development gap between the military and its suppliers troubled investigators at the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, who determined in a report released last Thursday that the Defense Department isn’t keeping good watch over those private efforts and doesn’t know how much of it would fit into the military’s tech goals.

The Pentagon’s undersecretary for research and engineering in 2018 laid out several big idea research areas that would be most relevant to maintaining an edge on China or Russia. Many are in the very early stages of maturation; the biggest breakthroughs are expected in the second half of the coming decade.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2020/09/pentagon-defense-contractors-are-out-step-tech-innovation-gao-finds/168237/

September 15, 2020 By cs

Big tech moves against certification as a government solution for cybersecurity

The trade association for the industry’s largest companies recommends relying on vendor declarations.

If governments are going to insist on using certification schemes — like the Defense Department’s new Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program — in efforts to improve cybersecurity, they should at least consider technology vendors’ own assessments, the Information Technology Industry Council said in new policy principles.

“Governments should consider alternatives to certification, such as supplier’s declaration of conformity/vendor attestation,” reads the policy recommendation released two weeks ago.

The suggestion is among six items the group offered for governments’ consideration, amid the Defense Department’s high-profile rejection of “self-attestation” in developing its CMMC program.

ITI Senior Vice President for Policy and Senior Counsel John Miller said the guidance is meant for a global audience, and highlighted the traction certification schemes have had not just within the U.S. and the European Union but also in countries like Brazil and India.

“Cybersecurity certification is not a comprehensive, one-size-fits-all solution, nor should it be considered a solution of first resort,” the document reads. “Nonetheless, if governments choose to set regulations to mandate certification schemes even after recognizing the limitations of certification, we recommend they follow six key considerations.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2020/09/big-tech-moves-against-certification-government-solution-cybersecurity/168230/

September 14, 2020 By cs

DoD’s AI center setting itself up to be a more agile buyer, use of OTAs

The Pentagon’s entity for injecting artificial intelligence into the military is considering adopting a new acquisition model that has been championed by the Defense Department for its speed over the past few years, but also concerns government watchdogs for its lack of accountability.

The Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) may use a consortium of companies and academic institutions to procure technologies and services needed to make AI a ubiquitous force within the military. The model pays a consortium manager to oversee a group of companies that pay a small fee to be part of the club.

The advantage of the consortium is it allows JAIC to exercise other transaction authority (OTA), a contracting method that has gained considerable steam since Congress expanded its use for the military. OTAs let DoD skip federal acquisition regulations to research, tests, prototype and even produce weapons at a faster speed. OTAs also put an emphasis on partnering with companies that DoD does not usually do business with.

“Up to now, JAIC has primarily worked through traditional defense contractors and traditional Federal Acquisition Regulation-based contracts,” Chris Cornillie, federal market analyst at Bloomberg Government, told Federal News Network. “Given some of the challenges that it’s facing with COVID, and the need to start to scale its production to the Pentagon’s requirements, it’s considering a change in its business model.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2020/09/dods-ai-center-setting-itself-up-to-be-a-more-agile-buyer-use-of-otas/

The Pentagon’s top artificial intelligence office released a request for information Aug. 28 outlining interest in establishing a new acquisition approach for standardizing the development and procurement process for AI tools.

The Pentagon wanted to fund ambitious research into future tech breakthroughs but contractors spend most of their money on safer bets, GAO has found.

The trade association for the industry’s largest companies recommends relying on vendor declarations.

The Pentagon’s entity for injecting artificial intelligence into the military is considering adopting a new acquisition model that has been championed by the Defense Department for its speed over the past few years, but also concerns government watchdogs for its lack of accountability.

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