Archives for January 2026

Live at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center, OPM Director Scott Kupor, NobleReach CEO Arun Gupta, Navy CTO Justin Fanelli and Johns Hopkins APL’s Christopher Watkins make the case for “skills over credentials” and a new on-ramp into public service.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new episode of the Washington AI Network Podcast, recorded before a live audience at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center Theater, featured an exclusive interview with U.S. Tech Force founder Scott Kupor, director of the Office of Personnel Management. This federal government initiative is aimed at rapidly expanding the government’s technical talent pipeline as AI and emerging technologies accelerate faster than the public sector can hire and adapt.

The conversation, moderated by Washington AI Network founder Tammy Haddad, also included Tech Force partner Arun Gupta, CEO of the NobleReach Foundation; Justin Fanelli, chief technology officer for the U.S. Navy; and Christopher Watkins, chief mission engineering and integration officer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

From the Hopkins Bloomberg Center stage, Kupor framed the initiative as a response to two converging pressures: the speed of technological change and an impending demographic crunch across the federal workforce.

“The pace of technology is just going to continue to accelerate,” Kupor said, warning the government is “woefully under-prepared from a talent perspective.” He added, “Only 7% of the workforce in government is under the age of 30… if we do nothing, we have a pending problem.”

Kupor said early interest has surpassed expectations, with aspirations to scale the program quickly. “It’s been phenomenal, way better than expected,” he said, pointing to ambitions beyond the initial target. “1,000 is our initial target, but my aspirations… we should be doing 5,000… 10,000.”

A central design feature, Kupor emphasized, is reducing the “all-or-nothing” nature of government service—particularly for early-career technologists who may be wary of committing for decades. “I don’t want people to feel like they’re making a 40-year decision,” he said, adding that movement between public service and the private sector can be “healthy for both.”

A skills-first model — and a new public-service pitch

Kupor also highlighted a major shift in federal hiring: placing skills ahead of traditional credentials. “You don’t need to have a degree at Tech Force,” he said. “The requirement for the job is can you actually perform the skills that we need you to perform.”

Gupta, whose NobleReach Foundation has built a pipeline of early-career technologists into government roles, argued the bigger challenge is cultural: modernizing how public service is sold—and experienced.

“We used to sell government as a 30-year career,” Gupta said. “What we’re saying now is: come for a year or two, learn, serve, and see what’s possible… and whether you stay or leave, you become part of the public-service ecosystem.”

Gupta said firsthand experience is also a trust-building tool at a moment of deep skepticism about institutions. “Once you’re inside government, you humanize it,” he said. “You understand that there are good people with positive intent doing hard work — and that changes how trust gets rebuilt.”

AI at the edge: decision advantage, trust, and “exponentially better” performance

In the episode’s national security-focused segments, Fanelli and Watkins described how AI is already changing mission-critical operations—especially when deployed close to real-world problems.

Fanelli said the value is measurable in outcomes that matter in operational environments. “What it looks like is time on mission, increased lethality, increased survivability, and increased power projection,” he said, adding, “There are places where it’s not linearly better—it’s exponentially better.”

Watkins emphasized that AI’s promise is tied to reducing cognitive overload and enabling faster, higher-quality decisions in high-stakes settings. “Think about cognitive load of the operators,” he said. “It’s really about decision advantage at the end of the day—who can make the best decision fastest?”

Both stressed that adoption ultimately depends on trust. Watkins pointed to explainable systems as a requirement, not a luxury. “How do you trust what the algorithms are providing to you?” he asked, describing explainable AI as a way to show “evidence accrual—why it’s saying what it’s saying—so the operator can trust and promote it in the system.”

Fanelli argued the fastest learning happens when technologists are embedded closest to the mission. “If you are closer to the problem and closer to the people with the problems, you’re going to learn more,” he said. “You’re going to figure out what applications are there.”The episode is available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and major podcast platforms, with a full transcript provided by the Washington AI Network. Here’s how the event was covered by NextGov.

LAS VEGAS — At CES 2026, the world’s largest technology show, the Washington AI Network Podcast hosted a wide-ranging conversation on the future of digital finance, blockchain, and artificial intelligence, featuring Caroline Pham of MoonPay.

In an interview recorded live from the CES show floor, Tammy Haddad, founder of the Washington AI Network, spoke with Caroline Pham, former acting chair and commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and now MoonPay’s chief legal and administrative officer. The discussion focused on stablecoins, regulatory clarity, and how emerging technologies are reshaping finance and the creator economy.

Pham pointed to CES as a glimpse into how digital money is moving from theory into daily use. “One of the things that was very cool about being here at CES is… there’s a big presence with creators, with artists, and you’re able to do some interesting things with the blockchain technology powered with digital money,” she said.

Having helped advance the GENIUS Act, which established a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, Pham emphasized that clarity is unlocking innovation. She described stablecoins as “programmable, smart value systems” that can move money more efficiently across global markets and support everything from financial infrastructure to consumer applications.

A central theme of the conversation was how blockchain, stablecoins, and AI could transform how creators earn money and protect their work. “With agentic AI, with the blockchain technology, with digital money like stablecoins… all of that can be automated, and you could be getting paid for what you made,” Pham said, calling the technology a way to modernize royalties and strengthen intellectual property protections.

Pham also argued that the shift goes beyond creators to individuals more broadly. “Every single person is going to be able to be their own creator with a bank and a network and consumers or fans all accessible through decentralized applications,” she said, describing a future built around direct, peer-to-peer economic relationships.

Looking ahead, Pham predicted rapid growth. “In 2026, we’re going to see institutional adoption, but we’re also going to see adoption of digital money at scale,” she said. The episode was recorded at CES 2026, produced by the Consumer Technology Association, and is available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other major platforms.

LAS VEGAS — A wave of U.S. government leadership took center stage at CES 2026, underscoring the growing role of public policy in shaping the future of technology innovation. High-level officials, including Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Michael Kratsios, Under Secretary for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, and newly confirmed U.S. Chief Technology Officer Ethan Klein, converged at CES this week for major panels, strategy sessions, and forward-looking discussions.

Officials emphasized the importance of public-private collaboration, workforce development, global competitiveness, and regulatory clarity as AI and other emerging technologies rapidly transform industries.

A key highlight of the week was “America’s AI Future: A Fireside Chat”, where Director Kratsios joined CTA President Kinsey Fabrizio to lay out the administration’s strategic priorities on artificial intelligence.

Kratsios framed the U.S. approach around bolstering innovation, infrastructure, and global deployment — saying that to “win the AI race,” the country must not only sustain research and development but also remove regulatory barriers that slow commercialization and market entry. He noted that inconsistent state-level AI rules increase compliance costs, particularly for startups and smaller firms.

A central theme of Kratsios’s remarks was the urgent need to upgrade physical and digital infrastructure, including data centers and energy systems capable of supporting massive AI workloads — and to streamline permitting processes that often hold projects up. “The future is already here. Our job is to make it deployable,” he said.

Workforce development was another major focus, with Kratsios stressing that AI literacy needs to start in K-12 education and continue through reskilling programs that link Americans to AI-related jobs — echoing a broader push to expand access to opportunity in an AI-driven economy with the newly announced Tech Force initiative.

Governors Mike Dunleavy (Alaska) and Joe Lombardo (Nevada) joined the conversation on regional tech ecosystems, showcasing how localized leadership drives innovation, investment, and job creation across sectors from energy tech to autonomous systems. Their remarks highlighted the diversity of U.S. tech growth beyond traditional Silicon Valley hubs.

Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Jacob Helberg engaged audiences on how technology, security, and statecraft intersect — particularly in semiconductors and AI — underscoring the strategic link between technological leadership and national competitiveness.

The week also saw congressional staffers and policy advisors actively engaging with industry leaders on topics from trade policy to cybersecurity. These discussions, often held informally on the show floor as well as in scheduled sessions, reflected a broader trend of policymakers using CES as a platform to inform and shape legislative priorities in real time. One notable discussion hosted by CTA’s Michael Petricone analyzed the “Litigation Tax,” and how lawsuits stifle U.S. innovation industry leaders, and Chief Counsel for Intellectual Property of the House Judiciary Committee John Lee joined the discussion.

CES 2026 wasn’t just about gadgets; it was equally a policy summit, with sessions addressing autonomous systems, digital trade, competition, and workforce issues. Government participation — from federal offices to state leadership — signaled a deepening recognition that technology policy and innovation strategy are now inseparable.

As one CTA official noted ahead of the show, CES has become “where the world comes to define the future of technology” — and with policymakers playing a leading role this year, that future looks poised to be shaped by both innovation and sensible governance. 

Here’s more government officials spotted at CES as reported in POLITICO: 

OUT AND ABOUT — Official Washington showed up in force at CES 2026 this week, where senators, governors, Trump officials and top regulators joined Consumer Technology Association leadership — Gary Shapiro, Kinsey Fabrizio, Tiffany Moore and Michael Petricone — turning the Las Vegas Convention Center and surrounding hotels into a hub for conversations on AI, health tech, mobility, competition and U.S. innovation. SPOTTED across CES stages: Sens. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, Deputy CMS Administrator Chris Klomp, FDA Commissioner Martin Makary, NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth, FHWA Administrator Sean McMaster, NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison, FCC Chair Brendan Carr, FCC Commissioners Anna Gomez and Olivia Trusty, Michael Kratsios, William Kimmitt, Darío Gil, Jacob Helberg, Ethan Klein, Sushan Demirjian and Conner Prochaska.

LAS VEGAS — CES 2026 opened Tuesday in Las Vegas, bringing tens of thousands of technology executives, engineers, investors, policymakers, and media to the world’s largest annual showcase of tech innovation, with artificial intelligence dominating the agenda from the opening hours. 

CTA Chairman and CEO Gary Shapiro and CTA President Kinsey Fabrizio previewed the themes shaping the show, the year ahead, and the future of the technology industry. The first keynote address by Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, followed announcements by Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, across town. Her presentation included a surprise guest, Greg Brockman, President of OpenAI, and multiple technological advances.  Tuesday morning’s presentations featured appearances by senior industry leaders including Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang, and Siemens AG CEO Roland Busch, blending major announcements and visual presentations with a live performance by the a cappella group Mo5aic. 

The four-day conference, held across the Las Vegas Convention Center and multiple venues along the Strip, is expected to feature more than 4,000 exhibitors and attendees from over 150 countries, reinforcing CES’s role as a bellwether for the technology industry’s priorities in the year ahead.

Each speaker defined how they are working with AI from robotics to health. From keynote stages to packed exhibit halls, AI was positioned not as a standalone category but as core infrastructure — embedded across consumer electronics, semiconductors, mobility, robotics, health technology, and enterprise systems.

One of the most closely watched moments of opening day came from NVIDIA, where CEO Jensen Huang outlined the company’s latest advances in AI computing platforms designed to power increasingly complex models and real-time applications.  Huang said, “The ChatGPT moment for physical AI is here — when machines begin to understand, reason and act in the real world […] Robotaxis are among the first to benefit.”

NVIDIA and AMD’s presence underscored the growing influence of chipmakers as foundational players in the AI economy. Major semiconductor rivals, consumer electronics giants, and automotive manufacturers also used the opening day to highlight AI-driven upgrades to products ranging from personal devices and smart home systems to autonomous and electric vehicles. Several companies emphasized partnerships and platforms rather than standalone gadgets, signaling a shift toward ecosystem-based innovation.

Beyond hardware, CES 2026 opened amid heightened attention to AI governance, energy demands, workforce disruption, and national competitiveness. Executives and policymakers attending the show pointed to growing global pressure to balance rapid innovation with security, sustainability, and regulation — themes expected to shape panels and private meetings throughout the week.

The opening day also reflected CES’s expanding role beyond consumer tech. Digital health, industrial automation, defense-adjacent technologies, and climate solutions featured prominently, mirroring how the conference has evolved into a cross-sector convening point for both commercial and public-interest technology.

As CES 2026 continues through Friday, attendees will turn to deeper dives on mobility, health tech, sustainability, creator tools, and accessibility — but the message from opening day was clear: artificial intelligence is no longer a category on the show floor. It is the lens through which nearly every major technology story is now being told.