Looking Forward: 2022 Predictions with Willie Hicks, Lonye Ford, Jazmin Furtado, Rayvn Manuel, and Tracy Bannon

On this special episode of Tech Transforms, Carolyn and Mark look to the new year with trends and predictions for government technology. Willie Hicks Public Sector CTO at Dynatrace, Lonye Ford CEO at ARLO Solutions, Jazmin Furtado Military Captain at Space Force, Rayvn Manuel, Senior Application Developer at NMAAHC and Tracy Bannon, Senior Principal / Software Architect & DevOps Strategic Advisor at MITRE talk about their predictions as we move into 2022. Episode Table of Contents[00:32] Willie Hicks’ 2022 Predictions for Government Technology[09:07] Lonye’s 2022 Predictions on the Acquisition Process[17:09] Jazmin’s 2022 Predictions for This Day and Age[21:31] Rayvn’s 2022 Predictions in Technology Will Never Be the Same[24:03] Tracy Bannon’s 2022 Predictions on New TechnologyEpisode Links and ResourcesWillie Hicks - CTO of Public Sector at Dynatrace Lonye Ford - CEO of ARLO Solutions Jazmin Furtado - Military Officer at Space ForceRayvn Manuel - Senior Application Developer at NMAAHCTracy Bannon - Senior Principal/ Software Architect & DevOps Strategic Advisor at MITRE, ambassador for the DevOps InstituteWillie Hicks’ 2022 Predictions for Government TechnologyCarolyn: Today, we have a special episode to cover some topics of tomorrow. We asked a few of our guests their predictions for the U.S. Government technology in 2022. First, we have Willie Hicks, public sector CTO at Dynatrace. The AI arms race. Will you talk about that a little bit and talk about where you see the U.S.' position in the AI arms race? I know this ties into the massive, National Security Commission's on Artificial Intelligence final report.Willie: Yes. The term AI arms race is actually in academia and industry, it's a debated term. Are we in an arms race? Some people are more purists when they think of an arms race. You think about the Cold War, you think about past arms races. There are certain criteria around that. Like the money that's being spent on, if you think of a conventional type arms race, both sides.Or multiple sides are investing millions, billions of dollars on arms, on different weapon systems, on trying to keep up, or keeping a step ahead of the adversary. You could argue two things. One, that you don't see that kind of spending today in AI, at least from the government. You do see spending across the board, industry-wise, a higher increase on spending. But some would argue that just by that definition, it's not really an arms race.You can make the argument that AI itself is not a weapon. AI is a tool that could be used to make weapons more lethal, more effective, but in itself, AI is not a weapon. By the textbook, there's some debate if there is, but let's just set all that aside to answer your question.How to Stay AdvancedWillie: Leave out spending. There is definitely increased competition. If we want to say that there is a race from a technology standpoint, that's from industry and from the government, and that's underway today. We see that daily in the advances and the money that's being spent in AI. But also you see that in the national security report that you had mentioned. There are a lot of studies going on.How do we technologically stay advanced or ahead of our adversaries? Or, at least, we've got to make sure that we stay