Chief data officers (CDOs) at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said they are modernizing their agencies’ use of artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
During a webinar hosted by GovExec and NetApp on Jan. 23, Cynthia Clinton-Brown, acting CDO at OPM; and Basia Sall, CDO and director of data, information management, and enterprise government at NRC; shared how they are advancing the use of AI and cloud computing with a specific focus on human resource management and interagency data integration.
Sall said the NRC will use AI to fully integrate its structured and unstructured data “later this year.” She said the agency piloted a version of the program which saw an increase in effectiveness and communication across the commission.
Sall also said the agency recently began combining AI governance boards and data governance boards together.
“It’s really interesting to continue to build a strong governance around data and ensure that we have the entire agency moving in the right direction and we have the guardrails that are needed to continue to move forward,” Sall said.
Clinton-Brown said OPM is undertaking an overhaul of two programs that help operate its human resources capabilities by moving it to cloud computing.
“It’s a huge initiative that’s going to allow us to have a centralized platform we’re looking at across the agency,” Clinton-Brown said. “We’re trying to basically give [Federal employees] this one-stop shop in the platform.”
Sall also mentioned that tech companies recently began to express interest in producing nuclear-run data centers to meet the increasing demand for AI development. She said the NRC is spearheading many regulatory decisions for private nuclear use in data center development.
“We play a critical piece both in using AI to help us do the licensing but also supporting as we need additional increases in energy,” Sall said.
Clinton-Brown and Sall agreed that agencies need to take multifaceted approaches to modernization. They said personnel, reliable data, and safety mechanisms are imperative for modernization across agencies.
“We want to make decisions about this data and not just gut feelings,” Clinton-Brown said. “All of it starts with the whole culture shift in mindset.”
“Having those guardrails available to lean on and to feel like you’re at the right level is going to be key,” Sall added. “None of your modernization is going to be any good if your data is not ready.”
