Federal officials on Thursday shared that the recent explosion of interest in AI technologies is also fueling better data management across the Federal government, and emphasized that you can’t have one without the other.
State Department Chief Data and AI Officer Matthew Graviss explained that his team is using AI almost as an incentive for better data management across the department.
“We’ve been doing data management and artificial intelligence for quite a while in the State Department … and our data management activities have improved,” Graviss said at the GovernmentDX event in Washington on Thursday.
“With the explosion of interest, I would say, 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. “So, 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.”
Graviss added that the State Department can also “add value with AI to diplomacy without improving our data yet,” as it utilizes a lot of public data, such as media information that is verified by diplomats and their counterparts or partners.
That data, he said, “is already good” and therefore “the opportunity to realize value is already there, and we’re off and running.”
Conrad Stosz, the 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. And if we’re not solving these problems, then we’re not going to keep up with the rapid pace of technological development. We’re not going to be able to adopt AI technologies,” Stosz said. “But I think what we’re seeing across the board is a lot of progress.”
“This is a priority, folks know it’s a priority,” he said, adding, “and we’re making a lot of progress not just on the data infrastructure, but also addressing the unique issues with AI in terms of governance in the U.S. government.”
For example, he said the recent establishment of chief AI officers across the Federal government can “help tackle these issues head-on.”
OMB released a sweeping new policy last month to promote the safe, secure, and responsible use of AI. The policy requires all Federal agencies to appoint a chief AI officer within 60 days, or by May 27.
These chief AI officers, Stosz said, can help provide “additional safeguards to protect people when AI is used in important ways, and clear direction to agencies to remove barriers that are preventing the sharing of data, the enrichment of data, and other things that prevent it from being useful and usable with AI.”
