A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In its January 2001 High-Risk Update (GAO-01-263), GAO designated strategic human capital management as a governmentwide high-risk area. The basic problem, which continues today, has been the long-standing lack of a consistent strategic approach to marshaling, managing, and maintaining the human capital needed to maximize government performance and assure its accountability. This report is part of a special series of reports on governmentwide and agency-specific challenges."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The degree of consumer choice among Internet providers has emerged as a key public policy issue. Because laws and regulations governing these different networks were generally tailored to the specific services each network originally supported, different types of communications providers are held to different rules when providing physical transport to the Internet. As a result of both technology and regulation, consumers using the telephone network as a way to access the Internet may have a choice of transport provider and generally have significant choice of Internet service provider (ISP). Consumers generally have broad access to Internet portals, applications, and content, either from their ISP or directly from the Internet itself, regardless of the transport provider or ISP they have chosen."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Return-to-work practices used in the private sector and in foreign countries reflect the understanding that some people with disabilities can and do return to work. Although the Social Security Administration (SSA) has begun to focus more on return to work, it has yet to adopt a complete strategy for implementing this new approach. The Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 is expected to enhance work incentives for people with disabilities, but fundamental policy weaknesses in the Disability Insurance (DI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs persist. SSA needs to develop a comprehensive return-to-work strategy that emphasizes its return-to-work incentives. In developing this strategy, SSA can supplement what it learns from the experiences of the Ticket to Work demonstrations with the return-to-work approaches of other disability systems to identify elements of a new system that could help each individual realize his or her productive potential. Adopting a comprehensive return-to-work strategy will require fundamental changes to the underlying philosophy of the DI and SSI programs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. government has long been concerned about the growing threat posed by the proliferation of missiles and related technologies that can deliver weapons of mass destruction. The United States is working with other countries through the Missile Technology Control Regime to control the export of missile-related items. The Departments of Commerce and State share primary responsibility for controlling exports of Regime items. The Commerce Department is required to control Regime items that are dual-use on its export control list--the Commerce Control List. All other Regime items are to be controlled by the State Department on its export control list--the U.S. Munitions List. However, the two departments have not clearly established which of them has jurisdiction for almost 25 percent of the items the United States agreed to control. The Departments disagree on how to determine which Regime items are controlled by Commerce and which are controlled by State. Consultations between the departments about respective control lists have not resolved these jurisdiction issues. Unclear jurisdiction may result in the same Regime item being subject to different export control restrictions and processes at the two departments."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Fruits and vegetables are a critical source of nutrients and other substances that help protect against chronic diseases. Yet fewer than one in four Americans consumes the 5 to 9 daily servings of fruits and vegetables recommended by the federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Fruit and vegetable consumption by the general public as a whole has increased by about half a serving under key federal nutritional policy, guidance, and educational programs, as shown by the national consumption data compiled by federal agencies. But key federal food assistance programs have had mixed effects on fruit and vegetables consumption, as shown by national consumption data. However, increasing fruit and vegetable consumption is not a primary focus of these programs, which are intended to reduce hunger and support agriculture. A number of actions the federal government could take to encourage more Americans to consume the recommended daily servings have been identified. These include expanding nutrition education efforts, such as the 5 A Day Program; modifying the special supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children to allow participants to choose from more of those fruits and vegetables; expanding the …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Army's 1999 multiyear contracts for the procurement of 120-mm tank training rounds, focusing on: (1) whether the Army's actions in 1999 resulted in savings on the purchase of 120-mm tank training rounds; (2) the effect the Army's decision to no longer direct that propellant be purchased from the Radford Army Ammunition Plant had on plant overhead and employment; and (3) the potential effect the decision would have on Radford's wartime replenishment mission."

Border fencing is intended to benefit border security operations in various ways, according to officials from the U.S. Border Patrol (Border Patrol), which is within the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). For example, according to officials, border fencing supports Border Patrol agents' ability to execute essential tasks, such as identifying illicit-cross border activities. CBP collects data that could help provide insight into how border fencing contributes to border security operations, including the location of illegal entries. However, CBP has not developed metrics that systematically use these, among other data it collects, to assess the contributions of border fencing to its mission. For example, CBP could potentially use these data to determine the extent to which border fencing diverts illegal entrants into more rural and remote environments, and border fencing's impact, if any, on apprehension rates over time. Developing metrics to assess the contributions of fencing to border security operations could better position CBP to make resource allocation decisions with the best information available to inform competing mission priorities and investments. CBP is taking a number of steps to sustain tactical infrastructure (TI) along the southwest border; however, it continues to face certain challenges in …

This report describes an accountability framework for artificial intelligence (AI). The framework is organized around four complementary principles and describes key practices for federal agencies and other entities that are considering and implementing AI systems. Each practice includes a set of questions for entities, auditors, and third-party assessors to consider, along with audit procedures and types of evidence for auditors and third-party assessors to collect.

Report discussing currently available machine learning (ML) medical diagnostic technologies for five selected diseases, emerging ML medical diagnostic technologies, challenges affecting the development and adoption of ML technologies for medical diagnosis, and policy options to help address challenges in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in health care (Part One). Part Two presents a framework for evaluating and promoting provider adoption of new AI-assisted diagnostic decision support tools (AI-DDS), centered on four integrated domains: 1) Reason to Use, 2) Means to Use, 3) Methods to Use, and 4) Desire to Use.

Report representing the results of a Comptroller General forum on recent developments in the area of artificial intelligence (AI) - and key implications regarding potential benefits, challenges to realizing these benefits, and resulting policy implications and research priorities.

Statement discussing the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) over time, the potential future opportunities and risks of AI, and the future implications of AI on policies and research priorities.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) is a set of technologies that includes automated systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, and decision-making. AI/ML has promising applications in health care, including drug development. For example, it may have the potential to help identify new treatments, reduce failure rates in clinical trials, and generally result in a more efficient and effective drug development process. However, applying AI/ML technologies within the health care system also raises ethical, legal, economic, and social questions. GAO was asked to conduct a technology assessment on the use of AI technologies in drug development with an emphasis on foresight and policy implications. This report discusses (1) current and emerging AI technologies available for drug development and their potential benefits; (2) challenges to the development and adoption of these technologies; and (3) policy options to address challenges to the use of machine learning in drug development. -- from Foreword

Document summarizing deepfake technology and highlighting opportunities, challenges, and policy questions related to the development of this technology.