Artificial intelligence has long been a favorite subject among sci-fi creators. The possibilities are seemingly boundless, giving rise to heady questions… Can a machine be truly sentient? What does a computer capable of beyond-human thinking mean for humanity, if we're no longer the top dogs? As technology continues to evolve by leaps and bounds, a healthy sense of caution, and/or gradually escalating terror, and/or constant anxiety about an AI-led apocalypse might feel like an increasingly fitting response--but why let the real world ruin your enjoyment of some of the best sci-fi stories around? After all, science fiction loves a plucky AI companion, a gloom-and-doom robotic destroyer of worlds, and everything in between!

Teams across NASA and the Department of Labor are accelerating artificial intelligence and data capabilities to prepare for high-performance computing and supercharge existing tools and technologies, agency leaders said during GovernmentCIO Media & Research's AI Gov: National Security virtual event last week. Krista Kinnard, Labor's chief of emerging technologies, said high-performance computing will help the agency accelerate forms processing. It also wants to boost natural language processing and data protection by leveraging lessons learned from agencies like NASA and the Defense Department. "What we've learned from these agencies around protecting privacy, protecting data, ensuring that data cannot be hacked, or leaked or altered in any way, is incredibly relevant to how we meet our mission," Kinnard said. As agencies prepare for the "compute" stage, data serves as a foundational element and must be consumable by a model and stored in an accessible location, Kinnard said.