In the world of federal IT, the Government Accountability Office is known primarily for its hard-hitting audits of government tech systems and programs. But what technologies does GAO itself use in service of its work? And what emerging capabilities might help it fulfill its mission into the future? The watchdog agency is just beginning to explore the latter question, with help from a new internal innovation team. GAO released a blog post this week teasing the work coming out of its new Innovation Lab -- a group focused on "transforming the way that GAO thinks about and uses advanced analytical capabilities."

Artificial intelligence and machine learning seem to be two of the lab's main focus points, as these capabilities hold the promise of letting GAO audit …

Neurensic, an artificial intelligence (AI) technology startup focused on software-as-a-service solutions for the financial services industry, has announced the formation of a new Innovation Lab, which will focus on applying its big data aggregation and AI capabilities to nascent technologies such as blockchain. "Neurensic's ultimate goal is to bring together all business processes currently completed post-trade into a single vendor platform that is able to function real-time and at-trade, opening new horizons for self-regulating markets and ultimately redefining all financial transactions. I have faith that our new Innovation Lab will accelerate this process", said said David Widerhorn, Chief Executive Officer. This lab will be led by Neurensic co-founder Zachary Watts, who is being named as Chief Innovation Officer. "Bringing a business intelligence layer to distributed ledger solutions is critical to forming a sustainable path toward adopting these technologies in the long-run," said Watts.