GOVERNMENT BUSINESS
DataRobot | January 19, 2022
AI Cloud leader DataRobot today released its State of AI Bias Report, conducted in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and global academic leaders. The report offers a deeper understanding of how the risk of AI bias can impact today’s organizations, and how business leaders can manage and mitigate this risk. Based on an exploration of over 350 organizations across industries, the research findings reveal that many leaders share deep concerns around the risk of bias in AI (54%) and a growing desire for government regulation to prevent bias in AI (81%).
AI is an essential technology to accelerate business growth and drive operational efficiency, yet many organizations struggle to implement AI effectively and fairly at scale. More than one in three (36%) organizations surveyed have experienced challenges or direct business impact due to an occurrence of AI bias in their algorithms, such as:
Lost revenue (62%)
Lost customers (61%)
Lost employees (43%)
Incurred legal fees due to a lawsuit or legal action (35%)
Damaged brand reputation/media backlash (6%)
“DataRobot’s research shows what many in the artificial intelligence field have long-known to be true: the line of what is and is not ethical when it comes to AI solutions has been too blurry for too long. “The CIOs, IT directors and managers, data scientists, and development leads polled in this research clearly understand and appreciate the gravity and impact at play when it comes to AI and ethics.”
Kay Firth-Butterfield, Head of AI and Machine Learning, World Economic Forum
While organizations want to eliminate bias from their algorithms, many are struggling to do so effectively. The research found that 77% of organizations had an AI bias or algorithm test in place prior to discovering bias. Despite significant focus and investment in removing AI bias across the industry, organizations still struggle with many clear challenges to eliminating bias:
Understanding the reasons for a specific AI decision
Understanding the patterns between input values and AI decisions
Developing trustworthy algorithms
Determining what data is used to train AI
“The market for responsible AI solutions will double in 2022,” wrote Forrester VP and Principal Analyst Brandon Purcell in his report Predictions 2022: Artificial Intelligence. Purcell continues, “Responsible AI solutions offer a range of capabilities that help companies turn AI principles such as fairness and transparency into consistent practices. Demand for these solutions will likely double next year as interest extends beyond highly regulated industries into all enterprises using AI for critical business operations.”
DataRobot’s Trusted AI Team of subject-matter experts, data scientists and ethicists are pioneering efforts to build transparent and explainable AI with businesses and industries across the globe. Led by Ted Kwartler, VP of Trusted AI at DataRobot, the team’s mission is to deliver ethical AI systems and actionable guidance for a customer base that includes some of the largest banks in the world, top U.S. health insurers, and defense, intelligence, and civilian agencies within the U.S. federal government.
"The core challenge to eliminate bias is understanding why algorithms arrived at certain decisions in the first place,” said Kwartler. “Organizations need guidance when it comes to navigating AI bias and the complex issues attached. There has been progress, including the EU proposed AI principles and regulations, but there's still more to be done to ensure models are fair, trusted and explainable.”
Methodology
DataRobot surveyed more than 350 U.S. and U.K.-based CIOs, IT directors, IT managers, data scientists, and development leads who use or plan to use AI. The research was fielded in 2021.
About DataRobot
DataRobot AI Cloud is the next generation of AI. DataRobot’s AI Cloud vision is to bring together all data types, all users, and all environments to deliver critical business insights for every organization. DataRobot is trusted by global customers across industries and verticals, including a third of the Fortune 50.
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GOVERNMENT BUSINESS
Noblis | September 27, 2021
Noblis, Inc., a leading provider of science, technology and strategy services to the federal government, today announced the launch of its RunGrants™ solution to automate, streamline and expedite the grants management process from end-to-end. A Cloud-based grants solution, it centralizes relevant data to improve decision making and can be configured to meet unique agency and mission needs. RunGrants is the third offering announced within Noblis' Run solutions suite which helps government agencies and clients employ automation and analytics to streamline complex workflows, expedite and improve decision making and achieve broader IT modernization goals.
"Funding from federal grants programs powers a wide range of critical public and private initiatives. Prioritizing and funding these initiatives to ensure that the most critical needs are met at the right time and in the best interest of the public can be challenging. RunGrants was developed with this in mind. It provides a clear, modern and user-friendly method for submitting and tracking grant applications to help stakeholders on both sides of the process from application submission, to evaluation, to selection."
Mile Corrigan, senior vice president, Noblis' Federal Civil Solutions
For more than a decade, Noblis has been helping to automate the federal grants lifecycle. With RunGrants, this expertise translates to a cloud-based solution that is:
Automated – Delivers speed and accuracy improvements while reducing the need for management intervention in a highly secure platform.
Standards-Based – Consolidates data for greater interoperability and support for modernization goals.
Flexible – A low-code framework to easily customize for workflows, reports and functionality to match each agency's unique environment.
Data-Driven – Gives managers and agency leadership deep insight into every aspect of the grants process for better awareness and decision making.
Cost-Effective – Software-as-a-Service model means predictable costs, regular maintenance and improvements that keep up with evolving demands and a streamlined acquisition process.
About the Run with Noblis Solutions Suite
The Run with Noblis solutions suite addresses the evolving needs of federal agencies with the speed, performance and scale of digital solutions that create insights, automate workflows, streamline processes and drive greater outcomes. Learn more at noblis.org/run.
About Noblis
Noblis is a dynamic science, technology and strategy organization dedicated to creating forward-thinking technical and advisory solutions in the public interest. We bring the best of scientific thought, management and engineering expertise together in an environment of independence and objectivity to deliver enduring impact on federal missions. Noblis works with a wide range of government clients in the defense, homeland security, intelligence, law enforcement and federal civil sectors. Together with our subsidiaries, we tackle the nation's toughest problems and apply advanced solutions to our clients' most critical missions.
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GOVERNMENT BUSINESS
BlackBerry | January 07, 2022
BlackBerry Limited today introduced a new feature of BlackBerry® Jarvis®, the company's software composition analysis tool, that enables those doing business with the U.S. Federal Government to comply with the recent software bill of materials (SBOM) requirement from President Biden's Executive Order on Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity.
Executive Order 14028 requires any vendor, supplier, or provider of technology solutions to the U.S. government to provide a full SBOM and demonstrate other cybersecurity management measures to ensure that any security vulnerabilities in the software supply chain of the nation's critical infrastructure are identified and remediated immediately.
In response to the new standard, BlackBerry QNX has added a specific capability to BlackBerry Jarvis that enables users to efficiently generate a comprehensive SBOM report that follows the Software Package Data Exchange (SPDX®) report standard, one of the leading standards to support the U.S. government and other regulatory bodies. Available in early 2022, BlackBerry Jarvis will become one of the first software composition analysis tools to provide this key feature to embedded software developers whose products are used by the Federal Government. This will empower these developers to keep software secure from all known issues based on the speedy and actionable intelligence provided by the tool.
"As multiple government and vertical-specific safety and security standards emerge, the need to have confidence in one's codebase has taken on a new level of importance, particularly during a time in which multiple cybersecurity attacks have illustrated vulnerabilities present within the digital infrastructure of the U.S. Federal Government. BlackBerry Jarvis enables embedded software developers to demonstrate compliance, track software quality metrics and continuously harden their system so that it becomes more resilient to increasingly cunning attacks. With BlackBerry Jarvis' new ability to generate an SBOM report in the U.S. government's mandated format, it's now become an even more invaluable tool to procurement officers tasked with managing the nation's cybersecurity and software supply chain risk."
Adam Boulton, Chief Technology Officer, BlackBerry Technology Solutions
"BlackBerry Jarvis meets the needs of the embedded software industry, allowing developers to gain deep visibility into the provenance of their software while automating the key steps in the binary scanning process in order to produce an SBOM in just minutes," said Hiten Shah, Senior Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. "Complying with this specific requirement in Biden's Cybersecurity Executive Order is something which policymakers around the globe will no doubt roll out with ever more frequency in the face of a threat landscape that only seems to be growing in scale and complexity. To that end, BlackBerry Jarvis helps OEMs bring trust, transparency and above all – peace of mind – into their software supply chains."
About BlackBerry
BlackBerry provides intelligent security software and services to enterprises and governments around the world. The company secures more than 500M endpoints including 195M vehicles. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the company leverages AI and machine learning to deliver innovative solutions in the areas of cybersecurity, safety, and data privacy solutions, and is a leader in the areas of endpoint security, endpoint management, encryption, and embedded systems. BlackBerry's vision is clear - to secure a connected future you can trust.
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