Understanding AI & Open-Source Intelligence (E215)

Can artificial intelligence make federal decisions smarter?

Artificial intelligence is transforming how government agencies train, manage infrastructure, and make critical choices, but with that power comes high-stakes challenges.

This week on Feds At The Edge, experts cut through the hype to explore AI’s real challenges and opportunities for federal leaders. Joe Cheng, CTO for Posit, highlights the core problem: while getting answers from AI is easy, verifying those answers is much harder. Jaime Fitzgibbon, AI/ML Portfolio at DIU, underscores that when it comes to combat decisions, human judgment must remain at the center. And Chris Ritter, Division Director of Scientific Computing & AI and Director of the Digital Innovation Center of Excellence, Idaho National Laboratory, likens searching for reliable federal data to finding a needle in a haystack, and shares how open-source verification can help.

AI’s potential is undeniable, but its success in government depends on trust, transparency, and human judgment.

Listen now on your favorite podcast platform to learn how federal leaders can harness this powerful tool, without losing sight of its limits.

To view this webinar: Understanding the Many Facets of Artificial Intelligence.

Featured Speakers:

Jaime Fitzgibbon

AI/ML Program Manager

Jaime Fitzgibbon is a Program Manager in the Defense Innovation Unit’s Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Portfolio and founder of Ren.ai.sance Insights, an AI-focused advisory network based in Vienna, VA. She has over 18 years of strategic advisory, program management, product development and digital transformation experience. Ten of those years tackled bringing emerging technologies such as AI into the National Security and Intelligence problem space.

With a Master’s Degree in International Public Policy, Ms. Fitzgibbon served as a presidential appointee in the Department of State’s Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, worked international democracy promotion programs at a DC-based NGO and helped pass the African Growth and Opportunity Act while working in the U.S. Senate. She continues to apply her skills of sound policy development and project execution to bridging the national security and emerging commercial technology divide.

AI/ML Portfolio Manager,
Defense Innovation Unit

Frank Indiviglio

Chief Technology Officer

Frank Indiviglio serves as NOAA’s Chief Technology Officer, High Performance Computing and Communications. Mr. Indiviglio is also the Program Manager for Research and Development High Performance Computing. Previously he was the Technical Lead for NOAA’s R&D HPC infrastructure at the National Environmental Security Center and at the National Climate Research Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Also serving as a Senior Data Engineer at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, NJ

Before joining NOAA Mr. Indiviglio was a Senior Research Associate at Cornell University’s Weill Medical College and a Director of IT services in Columbia University’s Department of Pharmacology. Mr. Indiviglio was also a systems engineer at Silicon Graphics in the Federal civilian and media markets. Mr. Indiviglio received a BS in Information Systems from Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA.

Chief Technology Officer,
NOAA

Chris Ritter

Division Director of Scientific Computing & AI

Chris Ritter is the division director of scientific computing & AI and director of the Digital Innovation Center of Excellence at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). His team of ~100 computational and data scientists are changing the world’s future with AI/ML, digital twinning, digital engineering, multi-physics, HPC, and digital thread technologies across a portfolio of nuclear energy, non-proliferation, semiconductor, and defense applications.

Chris founded INL’s nationally leading digital engineering team which grew from 0 to over ~57 of the nation’s top researchers and developers in digital science. His team led the first nuclear reactor digital twin, built the Deep Lynx open digital thread platform, developed the first autonomous non-nuclear microreactor, and is actively building multiple petabyte-scale digital thread platforms. Additionally, he co-president of Newcomers in Leadership and Chief Digital Officer of SMART USA. Prior to INL, Chris co-founded and led development of the #1 cloud-native MBSE tool, Innoslate, used in 107 counties across 2,000 companies around the world.

Division Director, Scientific Computing & AI and Director, DICE, Idaho National Laboratory

Tim Pakes

Senior Solutions Consultant

Tim Pakes leverages his deep technical experience to craft tailored solutions that address complex challenges. At DataWalk, he excels in designing and delivering high-quality, technical Proofs of Concept (POCs) that meet the specific needs of prospective customers, ensuring their seamless deployment and optimization in production environments. His work involves providing comprehensive training to enhance the understanding and application of AI solutions. Tim’s contribution to the webinar will focus on showcasing how DataWalk’s cutting-edge AI technologies can be effectively implemented in government agencies, drawing from his extensive experience to guide agencies towards achieving public good through AI.

Senior Solutions Consultant,
DataWalk

Ben Conklin

Head of Innovation & New Products

Ben Conklin leads innovation at Janes. Janes is the world leader in open-source intelligence. At Janes, Ben is responsible for creating a culture of innovation and is responsible for developing new products. He works with all the teams at Janes to deliver the next generation of interconnected intelligence. Ben works with Defense and Intelligence organizations around the world to understand their challenges in harnessing open source data to understand the operational environment.

Ben has worked with Janes since 2021. At Janes, he lead the product strategy and go to market execution for Janes digital transformation as the Chief Product Officer. Prior to joining Janes, Ben was the Director for Defense and Intelligence Solutions at Esri, the world leader in GIS for 16 years. In this role, Ben directed the research and development of defense-related technology delivered as solutions on the ArcGIS Platform. Before joining Esri, Mr. Conklin spent nine years as a Terrain Analyst in the U.S. Marine Corps. In this role, he supported many operations and ended his career at the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity where he assisted in the development and procurement of the Marine Corp’s Geographic Intelligence systems.

Head of Innovation & New Product, Janes

Joe Cheng

Chief Technology Officer

Joe Cheng is CTO at Posit Software, PBC (formerly RStudio PBC), makers of open-source and commercial software for data science, scientific research, and technical communication. While at Posit, Joe created Shiny, a web framework designed for data scientists, and has led that team for the last 12 years. More recently, he has turned his attention to AI, with a particular focus on the responsible use of LLMs in the context of data science.

Chief Technology Officer,
Posit

John Breeden II

Moderator & Contributing Editor

FedInsider Contributing Editor John Breeden II is an award winning journalist and reviewer who has spent 20 years working in the federal, technology and government space. Articles and reviews written by him have appeared in numerous national publications including Chief Security Officer, Stars and Stripes, The Washington Post, NextGov Magazine, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Technology, Network World, The Sacramento Bee, The Boston Globe, Government Computer News, Up Front New Mexico and many others.

For FedInsider, he has written many articles and white papers and acted as the moderator for over 20 interviews featuring federal, state and local officials discussing technology, policy and governmental issues.

In addition to his normal writing, Breeden has authored two technical how-to type computer books published by Prompt Publications. Those titles, Exploring Microsoft Office and Guide to Webcams enjoyed both commercial success and reviewer acclaim. He is also the founding publisher and chief editor of Gameindustry.com, one of the longest running publications covering the video game industry. He is the CEO of the Tech Writers Bureau, a group of professional journalists who craft thought leadership projects for government and private organizations.

He has twice been awarded Jessie H. Neal gold medals for excellence in business journalism as well as numerous national awards for journalism by the American Society of Business Publication Editors.

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Featured Speakers:

AI/ML Portfolio Manager,
Defense Innovation Unit

Chief Technology Officer,
NOAA

Division Director, Scientific Computing & AI and Director, DICE, Idaho National Laboratory

Senior Solutions Consultant,
DataWalk

Head of Innovation & New Product, Janes

Chief Technology Officer,
Posit

Contributing Editor,
FedInsider

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Understanding AI & Open-Source Intelligence (E215)