How DOD is using modern tech to manage its workforce

The Department of Defense houses one of — if not the biggest — workforces in the world. It is a Fortune 1 company, if you think about it that way. And managing a workforce that large and complex doesn’t come easy. However, the department believes that modern technology can play a role in making workforce management more effective. To discuss that, Wyatt Kash recently spoke with Mark Gorak, principal director for resources & analysis in the office of the DOD CIO, about the digital tools and resources the department is leaning on to modernize it workforce management and the challenges such a large enterprise faces in managing its workforce.

The Trump administration has made its pick for federal CIO, FedScoop has learned. Two sources familiar with the matter confirmed that Greg Barbaccia has been hired for the federal CIO role within the Office of Management and Budget. He replaces Clare Martorana, who served in the role for nearly the entirety of the Biden administration. In the short time the role has been vacant since Martorana stepped down Jan. 20, Deputy Federal CIO Drew Myklegard has filled it in an acting capacity. Barbaccia comes to the role with a background of mostly private-sector experience, though he started his career in the U.S. Army, according to a public bio. He then went on to build a resume as a technology leader at Palantir, where he spent a decade in roles including head of intelligence and investigations; blockchain company Elementus; and San Francisco-based credit underwriting technology company Theorem, where he was most recently CISO before taking the federal CIO role.

OpenAI has announced a new more tailored version of ChatGPT called ChatGPT Gov, a service that the company said is meant to accelerate government use of the tool for non-public sensitive data. In an announcement Tuesday, the company said that ChatGPT Gov, which can run in the Microsoft Azure commercial cloud or Azure Government cloud, will give federal agencies increased ability to use OpenAI frontier models. The product is also supposed to make it easier for agencies to follow certain cybersecurity and compliance requirements, while exploring potential applications of the technology, the announcement said. Through ChatGPT Gov, federal agencies can use GPT-4o, along with a series of other OpenAI tools, and build custom search and chat systems developed by agencies.

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