AI-Enabling Applications: A Viable Option for Agencies? – MeriTalk

As the Federal government looks to emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) to help improve citizen services and lower government costs, applications that enable this new computer-based intelligence via application programming interfaces (APIs) might be the least disruptive and inexpensive way for agencies to get started. The Trump administration's plans to establish the Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence as part of an overall effort to coordinate Federal AI research and development initiatives while working with industry and academia is a sign the government is getting more serious about the importance of AI. Some of the issues holding back Federal agency adoption of AI technologies are the high cost of supercomputing resources and the reliance on legacy systems that were not developed with AI applications in mind, Gary Newgaard, public sector vice president with Pure Storage, a provider of data storage technologies, told MeriTalk in an interview in May. Pure Storage has teamed-up with NVIDIA, a leader in the graphics chip space, to develop a comprehensive AI infrastructure to make the technology more accessible to government. However, as AI moves toward becoming a core component of modern applications, AI-enabling certain enterprise applications might be a route an agency can take to add intelligence at an affordable price point.