Ep. 186 How AI is Shaping The Future of Work in Government

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Last year, we were all dazzled by Artificial Intelligence vacuuming up words to spit out text, collecting code, and generating code.

Well, it's time to see if those parlor tricks can be applied to federal work.

Bob Ritchie is a self-proclaimed "code warrior" with years of experience evaluating federal software projects. He mentions three areas where AI can help federal projects.

It's tedious work to review code and try to make improvements. Software developers' analytical abilities can be better utilized by having the code highlighted and remediating the problem.

Security. A famous phrase in software development is "shift left."  Problems arise when security mandates are applied to existing codes. If you assume a timeline in software creation, a shift to the left means putting the correct code before release.

AI can help developers look at previous code iterations and quickly make security changes before release.

Humans. Bob Ritchie has seen the power of AI and has also seen analysts not using correct prompts to take advantage of that power. His solution is to create a variation on the popular Hack-a-thon: a "prompt-a-thon."

In other words, you need to get a group of people together and help them understand the proper way to word a prompt to get the results you need.

This is a fascinating interview with a well-known expert who provides an excellent summary of current policy trends and the impact of AI on government modernization efforts.