Governments Often Struggle With Massive New IT Projects

by  Paige Gross

Culture, bureaucracy and serving a broad patchwork of agencies can make a comprehensive technology update a challenge, experts say.

Idaho's state government was facing a problem.

In 2018, its 86 state agencies were operating with a mix of outdated, mismatched business systems that ran internal processes like payroll and human resources. Some of the programs dated back to the 1980s, and many were written in programming languages they don#39;t teach in engineering schools anymore.

The state made a clear choice–one many other state and city governments have made in recent years — they overhauled their entire IT suite with one cloud-based software.

But since the $121 million project, called Luma, rolled out in July 2023, things have not gone as planned.

 Read full story at Washington Standard/States Newsroom…

US Joins Council of Europe's AI and Human Rights Framework

by  Alexandra Kelley

By signing the Framework Convention of artificial intelligence this week, the U.S. pledges to mitigate AI-based discrimination.

Europe's human rights-centric body opened its Framework Convention on artificial intelligence and human rights, democracy and the rule of law on Thursday, offering nations the option to sign an international treaty to advance the development of standards on how artificial intelligence systems can be used.

Crafted with stakeholder input from the EU, 46 members of the Council of Europe, and 11 non-member states including the U.S., the Framework Convention offers a legal structure focused on combating instances of discrimination resulting from AI system use. Some of the areas the council and participating nations looked to safeguard include gender, race, ethnicity and other potential bases for inequity within a given AI system lifecycle.

 Read full story at NextGov/FCW…

USACE Data Scientists Enabling AI, Analytics Across Army

by  Daisy Thornton

In order to do advance analytics or adopt AI capabilities, agencies first need their data in order. USACE is helping various Army programs do that.

Federal agencies are all trying to figure out the best ways to incorporate generative artificial intelligence into their operations, because large language models (LLMs) are enabling federal employees to conduct back-of-house business processes faster and better. The Army is no different, which is why computer and data scientists at the Army Corps of Engineers' (USACE) Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) are working to enable those AI capabilities across the Army.

“Large language models are really hot right now. And everyone wants them for a variety of purposes. So we have a group of people who are collecting regulations or guidelines, best practices within certain communities in our organization and putting them within an LLM, optimizing that LLM using those regulations, and then being able to ask that LLM questions to help teach or inform bodies of people,” Cody Salter, a research mechanical engineer at ERDC, said on Federal Monthly Insights — Unleashing Data Insights to Drive Government Innovation. “That's really an incredibly common task that we see ourselves doing right now for a variety of different collaborators and customers, because that technology in and of itself, that LLM, is just really hot and widely publicized right now. So people are really able to latch on to that. They understand what it is and what it does and how it might be leveraged within their space, so we do a lot of that.”

 Read full story at Federal News Network…

Appeals Judge Baffled by X's Loss Over Calif. Moderation Law, Orders Injunction

by  Ashley Belanger

California's social media moderation law remains on hold.

Elon Musk's X has won its appeal on free speech grounds to block AB 587, a California law requiring social media companies to submit annual reports publicly explaining their controversial content moderation decisions.

In his opinion, Ninth Circuit court of appeals judge Milan Smith reversed a district court#39;s ruling that he said improperly rejected Musk's First Amendment argument. Smith was seemingly baffled to find that the “district court performed, essentially, no analysis on this question.”

According to Smith, the district court “offered no reason” for finding that AB 587 only compelled commercial speech “except for wanting” to follow “he lead of the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits,” which never dealt with “speech similar” to AB 587's required content moderation reports. Instead, Smith said, the district court seemed to take up California#39;s invitation to invent a new category of commercial speech that did not clash with the First Amendment.

“State legislatures do not have 'freewheeling authority to declare new categories of speech outside the scope of the First Amendment,'” Smith wrote, citing precedent.

 Read full story at arsTechnica…

Intel Is Fighting a Perception Battle

by  Evan Schuman

Although being removed from Dow would be entirely symbolic, it is the last thing Intel needs now as it is fighting a perception game to remain relevant in the enterprise.

Intel's plunging stock price, which as of noon New York time on Tuesday was the lowest it has been since 2010, could cost the chip giant its coveted spot on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA).

It comes at a very difficult time for Intel, as it is trying to maintain its enterprise relevance in the face of more effective generative artificial intelligence (genAI) campaigns from the likes of Nvidia.

Reuters reported that Intel, which was the second technology company to join the DJIA in the late 1990s, was “likely to be removed from the Dow” because of a “near 60% decline in the company's shares this year that has made it the worst performer on the index and left it with the lowest stock price on the price-weighted Dow.”

 Read full story at Computerworld…

Meta to Allow Messages From 3rd-Party Apps on WhatsApp, Messenger

by Prakruti Mishra

Meta is working on new notifications in Messenger and WhatsApp that will inform the user when they have the option to connect chats from supported third-party apps

Meta has announced plans for integrating third-party chats into WhatsApp and Messenger. As a digital gatekeeper under the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), Meta must ensure that WhatsApp and Messenger are interoperable with third-party apps such as iMessage, Telegram, Google Messages, Signal, and others. The DMA was implemented earlier this year. Meta' efforts to introduce third-party chats in WhatsApp have been ongoing for some time.

 Read full story at Business Standard…

Another Utility Adopts AI Cameras for Wildfire Detection. This Time, It�s Not as Far West

by  Sean Wolfe

Austin Energy announced it is deploying an AI-driven wildfire detection system from Pano AI across its entire 437-square-mile service territory.

AI-enabled cameras for wildfire detection are becoming a popular choice in the West and Pacific Northwest, giving utilities a new tool in their wildfire mitigation toolbox meant to provide early detection of wildfires that humans might miss.

Now, the AI-enabled devices are finding their way further east, if only slightly, to Texas. Austin Energy announced it is deploying an AI-driven wildfire detection system from Pano AI across its entire 437-square-mile service territory.

The Pano AI system integrates 13 360-degree cameras, AI and real-time data monitoring to detect and verify potential wildfires. The AI-driven system continuously scans for smoke, triangulates the fire's location, and delivers intelligence. Once a fire is identified, the system will automatically alert Austin Energy and local fire departments, providing precise location data and real-time imagery to help first responders in their efforts.

However, no matter how high they're installed, cameras can't see everything. When a camera's view is obstructed, Pano AI can use infrared satellite feeds to provide additional data, seeing where the camera can't.

 Read full story at Power Grid International…

OGC Approves Model for Underground Data Definition

by  OGC

MUDDI serves as a framework to make different datasets for underground objects interoperable, exchangeable, and more easily manageable.

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) announced that the OGC Membership has approved version 1.0 of the OGC Model for Underground Data Definition and Integration (MUDDI) Part 1: Conceptual Model for adoption as an official OGC Standard. MUDDI serves as a framework to make datasets that utilize different information for underground objects interoperable, exchangeable, and more easily manageable.

MUDDI represents real-world objects found underground. It was designed as a common basis to create implementations that make different types of subsurface data — such as those relating to utilities, transport infrastructure, soils, ground water, or environmental parameters — interoperable in support of a variety of use cases and in different jurisdictions and user communities. The case for better subsurface data and an explanation of the usefulness of the MUDDI data model is made in this MUDDI For Everyone Guide.

 Read full story at OGC…

Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About Wind Power

by  Wind Energy Technologies Office

Brush up on your knowledge of wind! This article is part of the Energy.gov series highlighting the “Top Things You Didn't Know About Energy“ series.

10. Human civilizations have harnessed wind power for thousands of years. Early forms of windmills used wind to crush grain or pump water.

9. Today's wind turbines are much more complicated machines than the traditional prairie windmill.

8. Wind turbines are big. Wind turbine blades average 210 feet long, and turbine towers average over 320 feet tall — taller than the Statue of Liberty.

For the complete list and details: …

 Read full story at US Dep't of Energy…