DOJ employees call on leadership for stronger response to doxxing; Scale AI unveils ‘Defense Llama’ large language model

An organization for Justice Department employees is asking leadership to step up protections for workers facing online threats, such as doxxing, especially as the U.S. election could make those issues worse. The DOJ Gender Equality Network, a gender equity and equality organization that represents nearly 2,000 employees and contractors at the department, sent a letter on Oct. 31 asking Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco and Assistant Attorney General Jolene Lauria to strengthen action on the threats. The letter states: “We make this request at a pivotal juncture: There has been an uptick in [doxxing] against government officials since January 6, 2021, and experts believe the election could exacerbate the problem exponentially. The time to act is now.” Credentialed U.S. military and national security officials are experimenting and engaging in multiple classified environments with Defense Llama — a powerful new large language model that Scale AI configured and fine-tuned over the last year from Meta’s Llama 3 LLM — to adopt generative AI for their distinctive missions, like combat planning and intelligence operations. Dan Tadross, Scale AI’s head of federal delivery and a Marine Corps reservist, briefed DefenseScoop on the making and envisioned impacts of this new custom-for-the-military model in an exclusive interview and technology demonstration on Monday. He explained that there are already some users from combatant commands and other military groups that are able to leverage the tool on certain networks. 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 on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.