"Securing Federal AI Talent" panel with AI Leaders
from Dept of Homeland Security, Dept of Defense,
Office of Personnel Management, & The White House 
at the DC Chief AI Officer Summit (10/02/24)

This critical conversation brought together distinguished leaders driving AI talent acquisition and strategy across federal agencies, including:

• Guy Cavallo, CIO and Acting Chief AI Officer, Office of Personnel Management (OPM):
  Guy highlighted recent policy and administrative actions designed to enhance the federal government’s ability to attract and retain top AI talent. He detailed ongoing efforts to modernize hiring practices, streamline talent acquisition processes, and foster a culture that supports digital transformation.

• Michael Boyce, Director, DHS AI Corps, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS):
  Michael shared the progress of the DHS AI Corps, emphasizing the need for specialized AI teams to address national security challenges. He provided insights into the recruitment and development of mission-critical AI talent and the pivotal role these teams play in securing the nation’s technological edge.

• Olivia Zhu, Assistant Director for AI Policy, The White House:
  Olivia explored the role of the executive branch in setting AI talent policies including the Biden-Harris Executive Order on AI, and fostering a culture of innovation within federal agencies. She underscored the importance of cross-agency collaboration and outlined key initiatives to promote AI talent development and ethical AI integration at the federal level.

• Stephanie Hunter, Deputy Director, Defense Digital Talent Management, Development and Training, DoD Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO):
  Stephanie discussed the Department of Defense’s efforts to integrate AI expertise into defense operations. She highlighted innovative programs aimed at identifying and nurturing AI talent for defense applications, while addressing the challenges of recruiting and retaining technical leaders in a competitive job market.

Click here to see the recap and the video for this session.

Key Takeaways:

1. Policy Support: Federal agencies are implementing modern hiring frameworks to overcome traditional barriers and attract world-class AI talent.
2. Specialized AI Teams: Initiatives like the DHS AI Corps are essential to building mission-driven AI capabilities for national security.
3. Cross-Agency Collaboration: Collaboration between federal agencies and the executive branch is key to creating cohesive AI talent strategies.
4. Defense Integration: The DoD is leading efforts to embed AI expertise into critical defense operations, ensuring the U.S. remains competitive on the global stage.

This panel underscored the urgent need for innovative strategies to secure federal AI talent, emphasizing its critical role in driving innovation, enhancing cybersecurity, and maintaining national security. 

The world’s first-ever Chief AI Officer Talent Map is a groundbreaking effort to identify and track the leaders driving AI innovation globally.

Here are the key highlights:

• 1,000+ CAIOs: The Chief AI Officer role has officially hit a tipping point, doubling in under a year.
• Top Sectors Hiring CAIOs:
  1. Government (propelled by the Biden-Harris AI Executive Order)
  2. Technology
  3. Financial Services
  4. Insurance
  5. Medical
• Where CAIOs Come From: From acqui-hires to fractional talent, discover how organizations are filling this critical role.
• Why Chief Data Officers Make Great Chief AI Officers: We list a dozen reasons why CDOs and CDAOs are fully capable of handling this critical role and its responsibilities. 
• Hiring Challenges: Demand for AI leadership has skyrocketed, yet top AI talent is scarce. I shared insights on hiring challenges—sky-high compensation, broken search processes—and how fractional "Talent as a Service" is solving these gaps. 
  • We were quoted on the FRACTIONAL CAIO topic in the Dec 12 2024 article by LinkedIn News: From Nvidia Challengers to Fractional CAIOs: Here are our Seven Biggest AI Predictions for 2025

Click here to see the recap and the video for this session.

• Nick Elprin: CEO, Domino Data Lab
• Randal Cole: Chief Data and AI Officer (Acting), Department of the Navy Office of the CIO (OCIO)

My top five moments from the video of this session included:

01:00: Nick’s introduction to Domino Data Lab: “We spent the last decade building the best platform to enable large organizations to build and operate AI at scale, especially in mission critical use cases. Domino works with 10 of the largest pharmaceutical companies, large banks for credit risk monitoring, and in the public sector I am proud of our work with the Federal Reserve, Centers for Disease Control, General Accounting Office, Department of Defense, and the US Navy, among others.”

07:45: When Randall discusses the hundreds of AI use cases at the US Navy Office of the CIO, including text analytics, natural language processing, and machine learning to help parse and curate the Navy’s message traffic.

10:20: The AMMO use case – “With Domino, the U.S. Navy’s AMMO team was able to decouple hardware and software updates to dramatically accelerate updates to ATR models at the edge. This results in more accurate imagery and sonar-based intelligence that can be trusted and actioned by naval decision-makers for next-generation warfare advantage.”

27:00: “We are up against enemies who may not care about ethics and responsible AI.” “Enemies don’t play by the rules.”

33:00: During the audience Q&A, there were some great questions from John Larson, Executive Vice President of AI at Booz Allen Hamilton who asked about the edge and compression of algorithms, and a question from Seth Dobrin who was the inaugural CDO at Monsanto and the inaugural Chief AI Officer at IBM.

Thanks to all for a great, participatory session! For more information, visit Domino Data Lab.

Click here to see the recap and the video for this session. 

1. AI ‘CZAR’: A Bold, Centralized Approach
2. EXECUTIVE ORDERS: Pivotal Policy Shifts in AI Regulations
3. REGULATIONS: The Balance Between Innovation and Oversight
4. POWER/ENERGY: Building Infrastructure for an AI-Driven Future
5. DATA CENTERS: The Engines of AI, But at What Cost? 
6. CHIPS: The Foundation of AI Innovation and U.S. Competitiveness
7. QUANTUM: Unlocking the Next Frontier in AI
8. OPEN SOURCE AI: Democratizing Innovation or Compromising Security?
9. NATIONAL SECURITY AND COMPETITIVENESS: Winning the Global AI Race
10. IMPACT ON U.S. ALLIES: Strengthening Collaboration with Japan

Thanks to everyone who joined our 11th CDAO Summit and our historic 3rd Chief AI Officer Summit, which was held at the University of Maryland on Tuesday-Wednesday October 1-2, 2024.

Last week we recapped the CDAO Summit, and today we are thrilled to recap the historic CAIO Summit.

• Read the full recap of our 3rd Chief AI Officer Summit here. See Summary below.
• Read the full recap of our 11th CDAO Summit here.

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