intellectual property | The Contracting Education Academy

August 28, 2019 By cs

5 challenges for government adoption of AI

From transportation solutions to video-streaming applications, artificial intelligence (AI) permeates almost every aspect of our lives. This includes government, where AI is increasingly making an impact.

Consider the two examples below:

Emma chatbot: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services receives a considerable amount of service requests daily. In response, a chatbot named Emma was deployed to address immigration questions. Emma, which can operate in both English and Spanish, handles more than a million immigration queries a month.
Firebird framework: Co-developed by Georgia Tech and the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department, Firebird helps the City of Atlanta prioritize buildings for inspection according to the building’s risk of fire.

Widespread adoption of AI has been slower in government than in the private sector. Given the magnitude of the impact that AI could have on public entities, it is important to understand the roadblocks that stand in the way of systemic government adoption of AI.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/08/artificial-intelligence-government-public-sector/

July 2, 2019 By AMK

Thornberry unveils potential punishments for DoD’s slow implementation of acquisition reforms

After spearheading the passage of dozens of reforms to the defense acquisition system over the last five years, House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) is proposing some measures to speed up the Defense Department’s implementation of those changes.

In a draft bill, which may be folded into the committee’s version of the 2020 defense authorization legislation, Thornberry is proposing a handful of measures to quicken DoD’s execution of its new powers and hasten efficiencies mandated by Congress in previous laws.

“The Pentagon’s record of implementing important reforms is mixed. This year, Thornberry’s bill is focused on compelling DoD to implement those reforms Congress has already passed into law,” a factsheet from Thornberry’s office states.

One of the more dramatic provisions in the bill prods DoD into reforming its fourth estate — the agencies that do not fall under military services. The 2019 defense authorization act mandated the Pentagon come up with a plan to reduce the fourth estate by 25%. DoD’s report to Congress was late and Thornberry felt it was inadequate and failed to identify mandatory savings.

Keep reading article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2019/05/thornberry-unveils-potential-punishments-for-dods-slow-implementation-of-acquisition-reforms

January 9, 2019 By AMK

Six things on the Pentagon’s 2019 acquisition reform checklist

Under the purview of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, reform has become a buzzword inside the Department of Defense, with every office trying to find ways to be more efficient, whether through cost savings or changes to bureaucracy.

**Flag of the Undersecretary of Defense**

The department’s Acquisition and Sustainment office, headed by Ellen Lord, manages billions of dollars in materiel; and by Lord’s own belief, it is ripe for changes that could net the department big savings.

On Dec. 17, Lord sat down with reporters and outlined a series of goals for 2019 that she hopes will help transform how the Pentagon buys equipment. Here, then, are six key items to watch for in the coming year:

Rework the department’s key acquisition rules.
Write a department-wide intellectual property policy.
Do better at developing software.
Increase use of OTAs.
Make greater use of prototyping.
Make the Selected Acquisition Reports public again.

Read the details here: https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2018/12/27/six-things-on-the-pentagons-2019-acquisition-reform-checklist/

December 26, 2018 By AMK

Pentagon acquisition chief aims to reform business practices in 2019

The Defense Department plans to simplify some of its business practices next year to improve the way it works with industry and acquires new products, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer said.

One key reform will be creating more commonality in intellectual property policies, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord said. Rules and requirements surrounding IP have long been a major concern for contractors that worry that doing business with the government will harm them if they lose control over their secret sauce.

“We’re writing intellectual property policy for across the department,” Lord said during a meeting with reporters at the Pentagon. “From an industry perspective, we are trying to be consistent across all the services and the agencies so that we don’t have different requirements for similar [acquisition] needs. … We’d like to have the same type of contract language.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2018/12/18/pentagon-acquisition-chief-aims-to-reform-business-practices-in-2019

November 8, 2018 By AMK

DoD task force addresses the growing threats to critical technology

Amid an alleged campaign of hacking by the Chinese government, efforts are taking place to prevent the exfiltration of data and protect sensitive information that is stored in the U.S. government and the defense-industrial base.

In a memo dated Oct. 24, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis announced the creation of the Protecting Critical Technology Task Force to safeguard critical American technology.

“Each year, American businesses lose hundreds of billions of dollars while our military superiority is challenged,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan said in a statement. “Together with our partners in industry, we will use every tool at our disposal to end the loss of intellectual property, technology and data critical to our national security.”

The PCTTF will report to Shanahan and Gen. Paul Selva, the vice chairman of the joint chief of staff. It includes representatives from the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Security Service, according to an industry official briefed on the matter.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/2018/11/02/a-new-dod-task-force-addresses-the-growing-threats-to-critical-technology/

From transportation solutions to video-streaming applications, artificial intelligence (AI) permeates almost every aspect of our lives. This includes government, where AI is increasingly making an impact.

After spearheading the passage of dozens of reforms to the defense acquisition system over the last five years, House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) is proposing some measures to speed up the Defense Department’s implementation of those changes.

Under the purview of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, reform has become a buzzword inside the Department of Defense, with every office trying to find ways to be more efficient, whether through cost savings or changes to bureaucracy.

The Defense Department plans to simplify some of its business practices next year to improve the way it works with industry and acquires new products, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer said.

Amid an alleged campaign of hacking by the Chinese government, efforts are taking place to prevent the exfiltration of data and protect sensitive information that is stored in the U.S. government and the defense-industrial base.

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