NewsBrief March 11, 2022

From risk management to strategic resilience

(McKinsey & Company) In a volatile world, resilience is an increasingly critical prerequisite for corporate performance. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a massive shock to public health, with dire human consequences. The crisis has dramatically demonstrated the sensitivity of economies to demand shocks as well as industry vulnerabilities to supply chain disruptions. Furthermore, the pandemic spread in an environment defined by accelerating climate change and the increasingly urgent demand to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Read More

New DARPA Program to Work on Trusted AI Algorithm Capable of Making Difficult Decisions

(ExecutiveGov) The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking to build artificial intelligence algorithms that could make decisions in complex military scenarios where two commanders would not agree on a single right answer. The In the Moment program aims at building military personnel’s trust in AI systems to present a choice at moments where there is no objective ground truth, DARPA said Thursday. Read More

AI Can Change How You Measure — and How You Manage

(MITSloan) With apologies to Peter Drucker, it is no longer simply what you measure that determines what you manage. It’s how you discover what to measure that determines how you manage. In industry after industry, we see innovative measurement systems leading to innovative metrics and new organizational behaviors that drive superior outcomes. More organizations are recognizing that benchmarking and executive expertise don’t always determine the best key performance indicators (KPIs). Read More

Data Center Optimization: Agencies Continue to Report Mixed Progress Against Omb’s Targets

(GAO) In fiscal year 2020, 24 federal agencies closed a total of 96 data centers. As of August 2021, the agencies closed 51 data centers in fiscal year 2021, with 29 additional planned closures through the end of the fiscal year. Moreover, all 24 agencies met their related cost savings goals for fiscal year 2020, identifying $875.10 million in cost savings. Agencies also planned to meet their cost savings goals for fiscal year 2021, and as of August 2021 had identified $335.88 million in cost savings. Read More

White House Reminds Agencies to Adopt NIST’s Software Supply Chain Security Framework

(Government Executive) Federal agencies must “immediately” adopt guidance on software supply chain security as required under the May 2021 cybersecurity executive order, the Office of Management and Budget stated on Wednesday. For government buyers, this means starting the process of putting the Secure Software Development Framework from the National Institute of Standards and Technology into practice. Read More

How the Navy is dealing with a heightened cybersecurity threat situation

(Federal News Network) Even an organization as big and armed as the United States Navy doesn’t take the ransomware threat for granted. Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke with the principal cyber advisor in the office of the Navy Chief Information Officer, Chris Cleary to check in on their progress. Read More

Should We Start Certifying Cybersecurity for AI Solutions?

(iot for all) Today machine-learning and deep-learning techniques take part in our daily life under the name of AI. AI technology is being advanced to counter sophisticated and destructive cyberattacks. As AI cybersecurity is an emerging field, experts worry about the potential new threats that may emerge if vulnerabilities in AI technology are exposed. Read More

Model risk management 2.0 evolves to address continued uncertainty of risk-related events

(McKinsey & Company) The macroeconomic environment over the past year has been characterized by rising uncertainty, bouts of volatility, and a sharp increase in event risk. These factors, and an uneven economic recovery, have motivated many financial institutions to leverage new analytics capabilities for a range of business processes. In parallel, the commercial landscape has continued to evolve, amid accelerating digitization and a wave of acquisition activity that has led to the expansion of model inventories in both the United States and Europe. Read More

Nuclear fusion is one step closer with new AI breakthrough

(Space.com) The green energy revolution promised by nuclear fusion is now a step closer, thanks to the first successful use of a cutting-edge artificial intelligence system to shape the superheated hydrogen plasmas inside a fusion reactor. The successful trial indicates that the use of AI could be a breakthrough in the long-running search for electricity generated from nuclear fusion — bringing its introduction to replace fossil fuels and nuclear fission on modern power grids tantalizingly closer. Read More

Simulated human eye movement aims to train metaverse platforms

(ScienceDaily) Computer engineers at Duke University have developed virtual eyes that simulate how humans look at the world accurately enough for companies to train virtual reality and augmented reality programs. Called EyeSyn for short, the program will help developers create applications for the rapidly expanding metaverse while protecting user data. Read More