The General Services Administration (GSA) on Feb. 8 launched an artificial intelligence (AI) challenge that seeks diverse and practical solutions to help Federal agencies provide the highest level of medical care. Prize money for the latest GSA AI challenge totals $100,000.
The Applied AI Healthcare Challenge focuses on improving healthcare in several areas – mental health, addiction and the opioid epidemic, equity, supply chain and safety, and cancer.
- Mental Health: AI technologies applied to mental health data to identify potential treatments;
- Addiction and the Opioid Epidemic: AI technologies to help public service agencies identify trends to detect and intervene earlier;
- Equity: AI to improve outcomes for populations disproportionately impacted by illness or disease;
- Supply Chain and Safety: AI to improve access to and safety of medications and supplies; and
- Cancer: Research-based AI detection models to help detect cancers earlier and improve outcomes.
GSA’s Centers of Excellence organization is working in partnership with Challenge.gov housed within GSA’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS) – a part of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) – to invite teams with new and existing AI technologies to participate in this competition.
The agency is also encouraging large and small enterprises, women-owned, minority-owned, small disadvantaged, and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses to participate.
“[TTS] drives innovation by partnering with technologists in all sectors to identify, demonstrate, test, and prove technology products that improve government services and benefits delivery. The Applied AI Healthcare Challenge helps the public and private sector work together to identify promising new AI technology products that support healthcare services and initiatives, centering accessibility, privacy, and customer experience,” said TTS Director and FAS Deputy Commissioner Ann Lewis.
Those participating in the AI challenge will compete for four $25,000 prizes. Submissions are due by March 20, and GSA will announce winners by May 12. GSA will select up to 16 finalists to present at the Applied AI Health Challenge Industry Day scheduled for May 2.
The competition is the latest in GSA’s AI Challenge series, which launched in April 2022 with over 120 participants from the private and public sectors.
The first challenge, which took place on May 2022, aimed to improve how the Federal government applies emerging AI and machine learning technologies for daily operations. The challenge focused on natural language processing engines, unified platforms, general AI functions, and computer vision engines.
The challenge received a total of 122 submissions, and the winners selected for each category received $12,500 in cash prizes.
