According to the general who oversees U.S. defense against incoming missiles and air-based attacks, when it comes to artificial intelligence and automation, humans shouldn't be "in the loop" but "on the loop." What seems like a nuanced change in grammar could actually have big implications. Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, commander of the United States Northern Command and of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), wants to push human control farther from the center of the automated decision-making. It would still give humans oversight of an automated system, but the artificial intelligence would jump right into action, not needing human pre-approval as it would with a “human in the loop” design. Jackson Barnett has the scoop.

A Message From AWS Educate

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Texas innovation competition takes on global challenges

Students from nearly 40 universities around the world gathered at Texas A&M University Friday to design and build new technological solutions to solve global challenges over the next 48 hours. Started in 2018, Invent for the Planet is a two-day competition that gives college students the opportunity to solve issues related to medical technology, education, digital security, the environment and transportation. Betsy Foresman has more.

GSA will increase post-award feedback to offerers with INFORM 2.0

Many contractors would like to see the INFORM process adopted by all federal agencies, finding it fairer and more helpful in crafting future contract submissions. Dave Nyczepir has the story.

Federal agencies must improve hiring flexibility to secure IT talent

A recent WorkScoop study points to rising demands for new federal IT skills. But workforce experts cite rigid hiring rules that tend to disqualify promising candidates and discourage others from seeing a path for skills growth in government agencies. Leaders from Cisco, Monster Government, VMware and World Wide Technology weigh in on how to address these challenges. Read more.

5G training with Nokia

5G is coming fast and your organization is going to need to understand how to take advantage of it. Nokia, one of the world's leaders in 5G, wants to help. The Sweden-based company announced a training program earlier this week that will give people a greater understanding and proficiency in the application of end-to-end 5G technologies. The two-level program will cover everything from the basics of 5G networks to professional level planning and design. The Nokia Bell Labs 5G Certification Program will officially launch at the end of February. Find out more on Nokia's website.

Job of the Day

Deputy CISO |Election Assistance Commission

Under the direction of the CIO/CISO, leads the EAC's election technology program involving the full range of election technology systems and provides critical input into the day-to-day security operations and direction of the Information Technology Division Security Program. See this job and more.