The public and private sectors are both barrelling forward with regard to artificial intelligence in recent years, especially with the proliferation of generative AI. But the Transportation Security Administration is taking a more measured approach that puts people — their understanding, well-being and productivity — at the forefront, the agency’s Matt Gilkeson told Nextgov/FCW.
“When it comes to some of the generative AI pieces, I think it’s really important to continue to focus on the people and look at how we train the workforce and make sure that folks are ready to understand what this is and how this works,” Gilkeson, who recently took on the post of chief AI officer for TSA, said.
If you’re interested in learning more from this fast-rising official, and getting a sense of the national security landscape from a government contracting perspective, attend the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Homeland Security Summit on Nov. 13. Gilkeson will participate in a panel discussion at the event about DHS’ new AI Corps initiative.
(In terms of the AI Corps, which will add 50 subject matter experts to the department to advise and assist with AI integration, Gilkeson said “four or five folks” will likely be assigned to TSA, at least on a temporary basis. He’s excitedly anticipating tapping into this resource.)
AI Use Cases at TSA
Even though Gilkeson and TSA’s AI strategy is putting people first—in what the leader dubbed a “crawl, walk, run approach”—he nonetheless identified a series of viable current and future use cases for the technology.
“We have a number of security detection algorithms that we’ve looked at to make our folks’ screening work a little bit easier,” Gilkeson stated, adding, “we’re looking at how we can use those use cases with our customer service centers to look across a knowledge base of frequently asked questions.”
Another area of interest is “how we can automate some of the contracting and procurement packages by looking at previous solicitations and asking a series of questions to our staff that are developing those packages to make it easier to develop a request.”
The executive, who is additionally the chief technology and data officer for TSA, noted that another principal usage for AI could be harnessing a “foundational language model” capable of retrieval augmented generation for processes and policies to act as an “information source for understanding how the 3,000 policies that we have — from a regulatory standpoint — interact with each other, or how our complex standard operating procedures in the field operate.”
Chatbot
Gilkeson also predicted that TSA might someday build and launch a chatbot on its website that would be able to engage with users about plane travel best practices and the latest rules and regulations of the agency. Such a tool would have to first be tested and earn the full confidence of staff though, he indicated.
Bringing It Back to People
While the AI landscape is highly promising, Gilkeson said the prevailing current focus at the agency is training and the strengthening of “a baseline understanding of what artificial intelligence is.”
The goal of all technology utilization at TSA is to aid the ongoing work of the agency’s teams, enabling them to “focus on TSA’s core mission.” First and foremost, technology needs to check boxes of functionality, safety, security, equity and accessibility, Gilkeson shared.
“The work that we’re doing at TSA to look at artificial intelligence is not designed to replace or or eliminate any jobs,” Gilkeson assured. “We’re looking at how we can augment and make the existing folks’ jobs easier and make it so that our security officers in the field, for example, are more effective at the security work that they’re doing.”
At the Potomac Officers Club’s highly anticipated 2024 Homeland Security Summit, Gilkeson will bring his expertise to a panel discussion with representatives from both the government and industry to illuminate AI’s role in the Department of Homeland Security as a whole. Don’t miss this packed day of fascinating keynote speeches and information sessions. Browse the full lineup and save your spot before tickets run out!
