Trump budget proposal boosts funding for artificial intelligence, quantum computing

The Hill | February 10, 2020

President Trump’s budget proposal unveiled Monday includes significant funding increases for research and development of artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing. If approved, the fiscal 2021 budget would double nondefense AI spending from roughly $973 million to almost $2 billion. It would also significantly boost quantum information science research by 50 percent compared with last year, with plans to double investment by 2022. "Last year, the President committed to investing in the Industries of the Future," Michael Kratsios, the White House's chief technology officer, said in a statement.

Spotlight

Spotlight

Related News

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

ABBYY Expands Strategic Partnerships to Accelerate Modernization of Government Agencies

Businesswire | April 28, 2023

ABBYY today announced it has expanded its partnerships that serve state and local government agencies. Data from the Government Accountability Office revealed that federal IT legacy systems cost over $330 million annually to maintain, while delivering sub-optimal service and carrying risks inherent to older platforms. To address the agencies’ needs to modernize both back-end and consumer-facing IT systems, ABBYY partnerships will expand the accessibility of its intelligent automation solutions to streamline cumbersome processes, enhance citizen experiences and improve the overall ability to meet constituents’ needs. Among ABBYY’s expanded partnerships is MCCi, which was recently named as a company to watch in the annual GovTech 100. MCCi has numerous ongoing initiatives to digitally transform government services, including unemployment and Social Security fraud mitigation and accounts payable automation. The city of Coppell, Texas is among their customers that have successfully automated accounts payable processes using ABBYY intelligent document processing solutions to turn key document insights into efficient outcomes. By leveraging ABBYY technology, Coppell reduced invoice processing time from days to minutes. “Right out of the box, ABBYY intelligent document processing was very impressive,” said Jerod Anderson, director of Enterprise Solutions for the city of Coppell. “We gave it a dozen of our invoices, and it processed with 99% accuracy on 90% of those. It uses machine learning, so once it’s corrected, the next time an invoice from that vendor comes through, ABBYY understands it and will process it with 100% accuracy.” Additionally, MCCi holds a contract with the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) where ABBYY is a part of an approved distributor solution. ABBYY is also approved through several other government contracts, including the State of New York Information Technology Umbrella Contract, the State of California Software License Program, and the NASPO ValuePoint Cooperative Purchasing Contract via Carahsoft. Furthermore, our approval through Carahsoft has enabled state agencies to leverage ABBYY IDP and Proof of Identity in the motor vehicle sector to expedite document review and identity verification and proofing. “Our expanded partnership with ABBYY to serve the public sector is crucial because in many cases paper processes are necessary to provide services to constituents caught in the digital divide,” stated Donny Barstow, CEO of MCCi. “Paper forms do not have to slow modernization efforts. Clients like Coppell, TX are accelerating their adoption of automation technologies because of all the aforementioned drivers and are having proven, repeated success in improving their citizens’ experience.” Bruce Orcutt, SVP of Product Marketing at ABBYY commented, "Agencies in the public sector work with trusted, best-in-breed solutions that are scalable and easy to deploy. We have the expertise to address the growing document-centric challenges of these agencies, especially as rises in unemployment claims increase the need to accelerate processing while mitigating fraud risk. MCCi has deep connections and understands the public sector, enabling them to navigate citizens’ weariness toward poor service experiences. Strategic partnerships like these are instrumental to our growth and contributions in the public sector.” As citizens grow accustomed to exemplary customer experiences provided by Amazon and banking institutions, their expectations of government entities evolve. For example, a recent ABBYY survey identified the top three factors contributing to the public dropping out of registration for government services as taking too much time/too many steps (54%), requiring excessive and repetitive manual entry (50%), and making identity verification too difficult (26%). About ABBYY ABBYY powers intelligent automation. We reimagine the way people work and how companies accelerate business by delivering the intelligence that fuels automation platforms. Our solutions transform enterprise data and empower you with the insights you need to work smarter and faster. We help more than 10,000 companies globally, including many of the Fortune 500, to drive significant impact where it matters most: customer experience, profitability, and competitive advantage. ABBYY is a US-based global company with offices in 14 countries. For more information, visit www.abbyy.com. About MCCi MCCi is a business process automation company that accelerates digital transformation by adding intelligence to your processes. As an IT services company with expertise in delivering end-to-end professional services provider, we provide our clients some of the leading technologies for business process automation, including Laserfiche for content services, Blue Prism and UiPath for robotic process automation, ABBYY for intelligent capture, and One Span for digital signatures. We are a trusted partner to over 1,100 government organizations, including cities, counties, state agencies, special districts, K-12, and higher education and are a proud GovTech 100 company for 2023.

Read More

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY, INFRASTRUCTURE

Mattermost announces AI-Enhanced Secure Collaboration Platform to enable both innovation and data control for government and technology organizations

Globenewswire | May 04, 2023

Mattermost, the leading secure collaboration platform for technical teams, today announced at the Web Summit Rio technology conference, new solutions for Generative AI and ChatGPT to deliver AI-augmented communication and workflow experiences in strict security environments to dramatically increase speed and decision advantage in government, defense, and technology organizations. “As strict security organizations implement Generative AI technologies, such as ChatGPT, there’s an urgent need for verifiable privacy assurances, data control, and granular permissions solutions when training AI systems with data from internal discussions,” said Ian Tien, CEO of Mattermost. “As an open source platform, Mattermost is supporting the security and compliance community in meeting these vital and evolving needs.” With this announcement, the Mattermost platform is now supporting a new generation of AI solutions. The foundation of this expanding AI approach is “generative intelligence” augmentation, initially served through a customizable ChatGPT bot framework built to integrate with OpenAI, private cloud LLMs, as well as rising platforms, to embed generative AI assistance in collaborative workflows and automation. The platform is further enriched with “functional intelligence” through integration with leading enterprise solutions, including with ServiceNow’s Virtual Agent platform, to augment employee and customer service access. An additional overlay of “domain-specific intelligence” is rolling out to support workflow augmentation in strict security, defense, and public sector organizations, and includes a new partnership with Ask Sage, Inc. which specializes in enhancing decision quality and accelerating response times in public sector organizations. “Mattermost's trusted platform is already serving the U.S. public sector, and now, with our partnership, we are taking it to the next level,” said Nicolas Chaillan, founder of Ask Sage, Inc. and former Chief Software Officer of the United States Air Force, “Government teams analyzing large data sets, writing code, managing RFPs, or translating and developing intelligence reports can now leverage generative AI to streamline processes and increase output.” About Mattermost Mattermost provides secure, workflow-centric collaboration for technical and operational teams that need to meet nation-state-level security and trust requirements. We serve technology, public sector, national defense, and financial services industries with customers ranging from tech giants to the world’s largest banks, to the U.S. Department of Defense and governmental agencies around the world. Our self-hosted and cloud offerings provide integrated team messaging, audio and screen share, workflow automation and project management on an open source platform vetted and deployed by the world’s most secure and mission critical organizations. We co-build the future of collaboration with over 4,000 open source project contributors who’ve provided over 30,000 code improvements towards our shared product vision, which is translated into 20 languages. About Ask Sage Ask Sage is an AI-driven solution provider specializing in assisting government and commercial teams with data analysis, insights, and factual answers. Built on advanced AI technologies, including OpenAI GPT and GPT-like platforms Ask Sage can ingest custom data (up to CUI/FOUO), tap into APIs, and connect to data lakes for real-time data and insights delivered as conversational engagement. With Ask Sage, users can access a wide range of data sources in a natural language format, supporting teams in labor-intensive tasks, allowing them to focus on strategic initiatives. Led by Nic Chaillan, the Ask Sage team leverages extensive industry experience to address the unique challenges and requirements of its clients. Currently, over 2,000 government teams and numerous commercial contractors benefit from Ask Sage's expertise and security features, including data labeling capabilities and zero-trust cybersecurity. By providing accurate answers and performing various tasks in a natural language format, Ask Sage helps teams make informed decisions, improve efficiency, and reduce costs. For more information, visit www.asksage.ai.

Read More

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY, INFRASTRUCTURE

Carahsoft and Alteryx Offer data analytics to Canada's Public Sector

Carahsoft | March 14, 2023

On March 14, 2023, Carahsoft Technology Corp., the trusted government IT solutions provider, and the Analytics Automation Company, Alteryx, Inc., expanded their partnership to offer automated data analytics to all levels of the Canadian government, including federal, provincial, and municipal, territorial, and crown corporations. Carahsoft will offer Alteryx products and services via its Software Licensing Supply Arrangement (SLSA) contract with Public Services and Procurement in Canada under the agreement. Additionally, Carahsoft will collaborate with its Canada-based reseller partners to support new Public Sector customers and expand the availability of Alteryx's solutions by leveraging additional contract vehicles. The Alteryx Analytics Automation Platform provides an integrated, end-to-end analytics experience, allowing everyone to create transformative business outcomes using data effortlessly. Alteryx Analytics Automation Platform provides a suite of capabilities, including hundreds of drag-and-drop automation building blocks for data cleansing, blending and preparation, as well as statistical, geospatial, and predictive analytics, as well as automated machine learning and natural-language data storytelling, to support at all stage of the journey from raw data to business outcomes, as well as every participant along the way. Team Leads at Alteryx Team at Carahsoft, Marty Gryski, said, "We are thrilled to announce the expansion of our partnership with Alteryx in the Canadian marketplace." He also said, "Alteryx's solutions address the current need for analytics automation to empower critical business functions. We look forward to working with our resellers to continue supporting the Canadian Federal Government in their digital transformation initiatives." (Source – GlobeNewswire) About Carahsoft Based in Reston, Virginia, Carahsoft is the trusted government IT solutions provider, helping Federal, State and Local Government agencies, Health and Education markets and Public Sector organizations. The company delivers solutions for Cybersecurity, Big Data, MultiCloud, DevSecOps, AI, Open Source, Customer Experience and more. Its sales and marketing teams work with resellers, systems integrators, and consultants to offer the best IT services, products, and training through hundreds of contract vehicles.

Read More