Lift off! How NASA is faring in its exploration of AI

As the federal government journeys into uncharted territory with the adoption of AI, it’s no surprise that the nation’s space exploration agency is one of the most innovative among the bunch. Krista Kinnard is NASA’s Digital Transformation, Culture and Communications Lead and was recently promoted to that agency's deputy chief AI officer, where she'll continue to play a key role shepherding the cultural push behind the agency’s AI revolution. The Daily Scoop recently caught up with Kinnard at ACT-IAC’s Imagine Nation ELC event in Hershey, Pa. During our conversation, we touched on her role at the agency and how it relates to AI, the progress the agency has made in adopting AI, and what’s ahead. The Department of Homeland Security has built an artificial intelligence-based chatbot it’s calling DHSChat, the latest in a string of agency experimentations with generative AI. DHSChat is designed as a chatbot meant for internal use within the agency, according to a press release shared Tuesday. The tool was developed by DHS’s AI Corps and its director, Michael Boyce, after employees experimented with commercial generative AI tools, including Claude and ChatGPT. In a statement, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that the “cutting-edge tool” would help workers across DHS “draft vital reports, summarize critical information, develop new software, streamline administrative tasks, and much more." The Department of Health and Human Services was among the first federal agencies to release its 2024 AI use case inventory Monday, reporting a roughly 66% increase in uses from the previous year. In a post accompanying the inventory, Steven Posnack, HHS’s principal deputy assistant secretary for technology policy and principal deputy national coordinator for health IT, highlighted the health agency’s increase from 163 to 271 use cases and noted the varying stages of development. The new figure, for example, includes uses for operation and maintenance and in acquisition and development, as well as 16 uses that are retired. The inventory comes as agencies across the federal government are expected to release new and expanded lists of AI use cases for 2024. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.