In a crowded field of AI contenders, the agency’s office of the CIO prioritizes partnerships with vendors that employees are favoring, such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

The Congressional Research Service told a House panel that $1.6 million would help hire AI-focused staff and obtain a confidential and specialized model to boost result accuracy.

The agency will potentially expand its artificial intelligence toolkit to help its workforce in assistive, collaborative and agentic tasks.

And, the Secret Service is the latest to stop using Claude.

The Claude maker sued the DOD and multiple other federal agencies Monday, alleging the Trump administration’s ban and “supply-chain risk” designation are unlawful.

CIO and Chief AI Officer Chris Kraft said building redundancy and keeping up with the model landscape can mitigate disruption tied to changing models.

And, the Pentagon gets new CISO with the appointment of Aaron Bishop.

Its disclosure of Grok use follows Treasury’s statement that the department was testing the controversial chatbot.

And, Secret Service begins recruiting for AI working group modeled after DHS AI Corps.

Federal agencies are working to halt their use of Anthropic tools amid a battle between the Claude maker and President Trump over how those services should be…