The Trump administration is replacing some of the nation's top tech officials with Silicon Valley talent tied to Elon Musk and companies associated with Peter Thiel. This could make it easier for Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) engineers to gain access to sensitive government systems, sources and experts say. Over the last few weeks, several Musk-aligned tech leaders have been installed as the chief information officers, or CIOs, of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the Department of Energy (DOE). CIOs manage an agency's information technology and oversee access to sensitive databases and systems, including classified ones. "Federal agency CIOs have authority over all agency asset management, which includes software used to monitor civil servant laptops and phones," a former Biden official with firsthand knowledge of a CIO's capabilities tells WIRED.

Theresa Payton, the first female Chief Information Officer for the White House during the Bush administration, says Trump's AI push could have enormous economic impact if the right guidelines are set. President Donald Trump's recent AI announcement has the potential to jumpstart a technological "renaissance" in the United States and serve as a strong declaration, similar to former President John F. Kennedy's pledge to put a man on the moon, according to a top former White House information technology (IT) official. During a speech at the White House, Trump announced that Softbank, OpenAI and Oracle have joined forces for Stargate, a project to build data centers in the U.S. for powering AI. The initial investment for the project will be 100 billion, with plans to expand to 500 billion over the next four years. The first data center built under the initiative will be in Texas, and it will eventually expand to other states. Speaking with Fox News Digital, Theresa Payton, the first female White House Chief Information Officer during President George W. Bush's administration, says the news, which Trump calls the "largest AI infrastructure project, by far, in history," has her attention.

Although AI was recognized as strategically important before generative AI became prominent, our 2022 survey found CIOs' ambitions limited: while 94% of organizations were using AI in some way, only 14% were aiming to achieve "enterprise-wide" AI by 2025. By contrast, the power of generative AI tools to democratize AI--to spread it through every function of the enterprise, to support every employee, and to engage every customer --heralds an inflection point where AI can grow from a technology employed for particular use cases to one that truly defines the modern enterprise. As such, chief information officers and technical leaders will have to act decisively: embracing generative AI to seize its opportunities and avoid ceding competitive ground, while also making strategic decisions about data infrastructure, model ownership, workforce structure, and AI governance that will have long-term consequences for organizational success. This report explores the latest thinking of chief information officers at some of the world's largest and best-known companies, as well as experts from the public, private, and academic sectors. It presents their thoughts about AI against the backdrop of our global survey of 600 senior data and technology executives.

Froggett to support accelerating growth and continued international expansion. Froggett was formerly Head of Global Infrastructure Defense, CISO Cybersecurity Services at Citi. In his previous role, Carl was responsible for delivering integrated risk reduction capabilities and services aligned to the architectural, business, and CISO priorities across Citi's devices and networks in 100 countries. Since 1998, he has held various regional and global roles for Citi, covering all aspects of architecture, engineering, global operations, as well as running critical enterprise cyber services for Citi's cybersecurity functions. "Carl has a proven track record in building teams, systems architecture, large scale enterprise software implementation, as well as aligning processes and tools with business requirements and I believe he will play a key role in helping our company grow and scale," said Guy Caspi, CEO of Deep Instinct.

The Department of Defense today announced that the Pentagon has hired Lyft Inc. head of machine learning Craig Martell as its first-ever chief digital and artificial intelligence officer. Martell will head up the DOD's Chief Digital and AI Office, which was created in December in order to centralize oversight of its data and AI initiatives under a single office in the Pentagon. As the person in charge of the CDAO, Martell will report directly to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. The CDAO launched with limited operational capability in February and is expected to achieve full operational capability by the end of June, FedScoop reported. He also has prior U.S. military experience thanks to his service as a tenured computer science professor at the Naval Postgraduate School, where he specialized in natural language processing.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are two disruptive technologies that are changing business, education, healthcare and finance in productive ways. Reports of the International Data Corporation (IDC) survey say that companies are already spending more on AI. Over half of the businesses have adopted AI in one form or other. To implement such powerful technologies and empower your business, these are the basic requirements. In order to be proactive in implementing these advanced technologies, we have to identify commonalities throughout the business.

Along with poor data quality, these issues combine to deprive organizations' data platforms--and the machine learning and analytics models they support--of the speed and scale needed to deliver the desired business results. To understand how data management and the technologies it relies on are evolving amid such challenges, MIT Technology Review Insights surveyed 351 CDOs, chief analytics officers, chief information officers (CIOs), chief technology officers (CTOs), and other senior technology leaders. They are succeeding thanks to their attention to the foundations of sound data management and architecture, which enable them to "democratize" data and derive value from machine learning. Pushing these to the edge with advanced data technologies will help end-users to make more informed business decisions -- the hallmarks of a strong data culture. Organizations' top data priorities over the next two years fall into three areas, all supported by wider adoption of cloud platforms: improving data management, enhancing data analytics and ML, and expanding the use of all types of enterprise data, including streaming and unstructured data.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines has selected Adele Merritt to serve as chief information officer for the Intelligence Community. Haines announced the news in a statement Monday. Merritt has held several positions in the intelligence community during a career spanning more than two decades. She began her career at the National Security Agency, served as principal deputy CIO for cyber at the Department of Energy, and director and acting senior director for intelligence programs on the National Security Council during the Obama administration, according to ODNI. Merritt was most recently program manager at DreamPort, a cyber innovation nonprofit created by U.S. Cyber Command.

Some corporate technology leaders say a proposed clampdown by European regulators on the use of artificial intelligence will run up costs and stifle innovation, just as companies are starting to unlock its potential. Others say stronger oversight will help build public trust in AI systems, which have inflamed tensions over data privacy, consumer protection and misuse--especially in areas like facial recognition. Thomas Donnelly, chief information officer of software firm BetterCloud Inc., said the proposed restrictions will have a negative impact on Europe's technology sector over the long term, as companies elsewhere gain a competitive edge by continuing to develop cheaper and more efficient AI-powered applications. "I've never seen tech as transformative as AI since the internet." The European Union's executive arm on Wednesday unveiled legislation that would ban the use of certain kinds of AI systems, while limiting the use of facial recognition by police.

The Pentagon's chief information officer will also serve as the head of a new organization overseeing the Defense Department's various digital and artificial intelligence efforts, the department announced Feb. 2. DoD Chief Information Officer John Sherman will serve as the acting chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, or CDAO, a newly created office designed to oversee the Defense Digital Service, the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center and the CIO office he was already leading. The new office was established to better align a number of data, analytics, digital solutions and AI efforts across the DoD. Previously, all three of those offices reported directly to the deputy defense secretary. Sherman will serve as DoD CIO and CDAO as the Pentagon continues to look for a director. "I'm honored to be able to help get this organization stood up, again, while performing my chief information officer duties and also serving as the acting CDAO," Sherman said.