How VA is Applying Artificial Intelligence to Proactively Solve Veterans' Problems

As the Veterans Affairs Department's inaugural Director of Artificial Intelligence, Gil Alterovitz aims to leverage the emerging technology and the agency's cornucopia of data to proactively anticipate and tackle problems afflicting veterans like never before. In a conversation with Nextgov, Alterovitz detailed his present efforts and future-facing vision to support VA in executing that mission. "Nowhere in the country is there such potential for research to be developed and translated into clinical care so quickly. In this case, it's to help our special population of veterans … and those patients have actually asked us to deal with their needs," Alterovitz said. "We really want to be the go-to place for veterans through AI research and development--so instead of reacting, we can really anticipate their needs."