Blake Brown

 My latest in Federal News Network discussing key priorities for the newly created Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board. 1. I might sound like a broken record - but the first step will be to prioritize targets. "Critical infrastructure" has massive scope and members should concentrate core systems including the grid, water, energy, transportation, and healthcare. Focusing on these essential areas will allow for deep consideration and effective action. 2. Prioritize preparation for cyber. Focus on analyzing existing regulations, identifying gaps, opportunities for harmonization, and ensuring government agencies are adequately resourced to address potential AI-related threats. While such threats have yet to emerge in force, policy should focus less on trying to avert specific threats and instead on preparing for unknown. We don't know what may come down the line but building the capacity for nimble analysis and well-resourced action will be key to future success. 3. Prioritize Diffusion. Recognize AI's potential to improve reliability and efficiency in critical infrastructure by studying bottlenecks, regulations, and research needs that hold back success. AI applications such as predicting wind power supply, detecting downed powerlines, and augmenting cyber defenses could significantly benefit these systems. By concentrating on these priorities and developing clear strategies, the AI Safety and Security Board can ensure much needed trust and maximum AI success in our nation's most essential systems, leading to a more prosperous future. https://lnkd.in/eRrZKSew

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Improving FOIA should have been at the center of a 5th #OpenGov U.S. national action plan in 2022, but this White House chose to prioritize equity plans & commitments over restoring transparency & accountability in accord with the mandates of Congress & the petitions of civil society advocates. https://lnkd.in/eXC3PP76 The ongoing lack of oversight of FOIA in Congress is paired with an appalling lack of oversight of open government and US participation in the Open Government Partnership: https://lnkd.in/gz3CEuvy

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Narrative Warfare, Strategic Competition, & International Stability 1. Strategic narratives drive policies, not the other way around, and reflect the trajectory of strategic competition. And policies and actions shaped by such narratives produce real consequences, not theoretical. Well worth listening to Daokui Li, Andrew Erickson, Niall Ferguson, Keyu JIn, & Matt Pottinger as they represent the competition of strategic narratives that shape the current geopolitical dynamics between the US and the PRC. 2. Note the narratives that obfuscate the greatest transfer, often illegal, of wealth. 3. Note that these narratives have real and immediate consequences such as the fentanyl epidemic that kills over 80,000 American every year and how Chinese technology mostly stolen from us enables Russian and Iranian weapons that kill thousands of civilians in Ukraine each year. 4. But it is important to discern old China from young China. And also important not to lump Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, and Dengism. Strategic empathy cannot afford simplification. #Strategiccompetition #nationalsecurity #informationwarfare #cybercrime #economicwarfare #Illicittrade #StrategicNarrative #NarrativeWarfare #NarrativeIntelligence #StrategicEmpathy EdgeTheory Joe Stradinger Charles Cleveland

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Flagging Federal Registry notice seems akin to tuning into a Congressional Roll Call on C-SPAN, but this is the State Department’s attempt to lean on the #privatesector, #academia, and #thinktanks by establishing Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC). Written comments are due on August 15, 2024, at 5 PM ET, and I hope we can benefit from broad experience and insights to set these up to modernize our systems, operations, and the field of diplomacy. The goal is to create mechanisms for the State Department to benefit from deep technical research that isn't normally associated with the field of #diplomacy and #foreignaffairs. #doingbusinesswithdepartmentofstate #modernization

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Joined C-Span this morning to talk independent candidates and voters, the impact that each may have in the 2024 elections, and the technology and community the team at Good Party is building to make it possible for alternatives to the two party system to run, win and serve this year and into the future. Checkout the full interview here! https://lnkd.in/ev_uJ9rH"

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Today, the Department of Homeland Security announced the establishment of the Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board to advise the secretary on critical infrastructure risks. While a worthwhile initiative, the design of our current critical infrastrucure policy structure is a fundamental disservice to such efforts. Today, critical infrastrucure encompasses 16 industrial sectors, an unwieldy 60% or more of the U.S. economy, and a grab bag of non-critical assets including casinos, ride share vehicles and the cosmetics industry. For a small committee of 22, this unwieldy scope will strain priorities, waste time, and distract focus from the core systems that really matter. Effectively securing our critical infrastrucure demand we set the priorities, shrink policy scope, and finally determine what is indeed the most critical and the most deserving of DHS’s limited resources. https://lnkd.in/eXdRveWB

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I spoke with NTD News about our recent Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) case study report to Congress that details how BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and MSCI Inc., the world’s foremost index provider, are investing in Chinese military companies, companies working on China's large-scale nuclear weapons buildup, and companies sanctioned by the U.S. government for their involvement in Beijing’s ongoing use of forced labor and genocide against the Uyghurs. CPA’s report shows that BlackRock’s offshore funds have about $130 million invested across 14 Chinese Military-Industrial Complex companies listed on the Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Shenzhen stock exchanges—equity positions that would be illegal if held in the United States. Watch the full interview here: https://lnkd.in/ePq_w555

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(Our tutorials are out @ https://lnkd.in/gTVe5W9b - check us out!) "Yong Kiat, why haven't you been updating me on SENSE more regularly?" I wish I could update stakeholders and Senior Management on our products the way I did when I was a MOE or MOH policy officer - daily, or even weekly. But the truth is that in modern software engineering, realities and challenges change so frequently, that it's impossible for anyone to have a firm grasp on the product evolution other than the product team. And that's why the 21st century public servant has taken to LinkedIn to place strategic updates. Don't worry, we've been hard at work! As part of product launch, we've prepared twelve tutorial videos on how to operate SENSE, and its various LLM features! We translated prompt engineering techniques like context creation, context clarification and few-shot prompting into practical queries to ask on SENSE. Why tutorials? Well, a great product is nothing if we do not make it clear as day how our product should be used. Here at GovTech, we're not just interested in creating products for the public service. A digital savvy workforce is as much the people as the digital products they use - since LLMs are such a novel tool, we thought to place more emphasis on education and good product design, rather than just ride the AI product bandwagon. This will pave the way for, well, a sensible use of SENSE. Thanks for partnering us on our journey, and being with us during this exciting launch month for SENSE.

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What risks will the influx of illegal immigrants under the auspices of the Biden administration bring to the United States? What are the factors that led to the crisis becoming a large-scale one? Learn more through my conversation with Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies for Episode 7 of Strategic Wisdom with Andrew Jose. Full Episode: bit.ly/strategicwisdom #IllegalAliens #IllegalImmigration #UndocumentedMigrants #JoeBiden #Biden2024

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My essay "Separating Tariff Facts from Tariff Fictions" for the Cato Institute's #DefendingGlobalization project is out today. Essay: https://lnkd.in/gRyrM5fy Twitter thread: https://lnkd.in/gWy7fUhC Some talk of tariffs as if they can raise revenue for the government and make citizens more prosperous and business endeavors more productive. But it is dubious to claim tariffs can be imposed with no economic trade‐​offs. American history provides an abundance of examples of politicians using tariffs to protect domestic industry. Taken together, the examples show that tariffs do not generate higher levels of employment or production for the economy overall; they do not ensure the long‐​term health of the industries being protected or fundamentally alter the trade balance; and they serve not the strategic interests of the nation but the parochial interests of politicians who get to enrich preferred companies and workers by imposing diffuse and mostly hidden costs on the rest of the US economy.

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If you are a company or organization currently paying or looking for government relations, public affairs, or lobbying help in the Washington, DC area, don't pay the additional premium for the firm with the unnecessary office image in DC to support. Doing so is like Jim Croce continuing to put dimes into a pay phone to keep the connection going with the operator while a growing digital era takes hold. Instead look at smaller firms, like Avison Strategies, LLC, with similar experience, a much smaller fee structure and a business model focused on results, the latest AI and ML technology, and personal attention to reach people where they are and when it is needed. Retainers average $4,000-$5,000/month for firms like mine compared to $10,000-$15,000/month for firms like those. Office costs and the impact through association fallacy will make you overpay and results will frequently under deliver. Support a small business instead and see the difference.

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The Senate’s AI Roadmap will strengthen America’s global competitiveness in artificial intelligence and ensure the U.S. remains the world’s leader in safe and responsible AI innovation. It will provide robust funding for USAISI, NAIRR, Tech Hubs, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), expand innovation, empower a new generation of AI leaders, bolster our workforce, lower barriers to entry for AI research, and set guardrails to protect U.S. institutions. We applaud Leader Schumer and Senators Rounds, Heinrich, and Young for their continued leadership in crafting this roadmap. Read our statement: https://bit.ly/3QHro6g

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For anyone interested in organizational culture - this important session will go beyond the hype and hyperbole and address not just how AI will affect what we do and how we do it, but how we work together.

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