Expediting Federal AI Projects with Funding
The TMF Board award follows the State Department’s November 2023 release of its first enterprise AI strategy, “Empowering Diplomacy through Responsible AI.”
While the awards span other areas, particularly security, AI aligns closely with the TMF’s goal of “enhancing public services and operational efficiency.” In February, the board promised an expedited review of AI-related proposals requesting up to $6 million with timelines of up to 18 months.
AI applications are underway across the federal government, but the challenge is to make such use cases easy, according to Jeff Winterich with HPE Federal.
He advises agencies to be intentional about their models, opting for open-source offerings that provide the specific capabilities an agency wants. Similarly, agencies may not need to go all-out in deploying infrastructure to support large language models, some of which require limited computing power.
Within the parameters of responsible AI use, Winterich also encourages agencies to experiment. “People need to get comfortable experimenting with AI models before they’re going to be able to operationalize them,” he says.
