This Week in Government Tech Media – August 15, 2025

By Brad Bass /

The General Services Administration (GSA) was in the news this week, mostly around artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives but also its Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) to streamline cloud security authorizations across the government. Also, AI continues to grab the attention of reporters covering the Defense tech space. Here’s my weekly roundup of the top trending stories:

GSA Pushes Forward

The GSA trumpeted the success of its cloud security program and made some big announcements related to governmentwide AI offerings this week. These actions generated headlines across several publications:

  • A number of  reporters picked up on the recent success of GSA’s FedRAMP program. Natalie Alms of Nextgov/FCW reported that as of last month, FedRAMP completed 114 authorizations for fiscal 2025, more than double the number finished in fiscal 2024. Covering the announcement for MeriTalk, Grace Dille noted that this represents a record pace for FedRAMP authorizations. The uptick was the result of reforms unveiled in March focused on simplifying the authorization process and shaving the approval timeline from months to weeks, according to a report by Miranda Nazzaro in FedScoop. Brandon Vigliarolo, who covers government news for tech trade The Register, reported that improvements were due to new automated processes such as requiring submissions for FedRAMP approval reported in a machine-readable format so that AI can analyze new filings before review by humans.
  • The GSA this week rolled out a new governmentwide AI evaluation suite called USAi to give federal agencies the ability to test major artificial intelligence models, according to an article by Nazzaro. Covering the news for Nextgov/FCW, Frank Konkel called USAi a “major Trump administration initiative” to streamline adoption of AI products like chatbots, code generation, document summarization, large language models and other tools.
  • We saw multiple pieces this week on the addition of Anthropic’s Claude generative AI services to the GSA OneGov contracting program, following last week’s similar announcement related to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Enterprise tool. Alexandra Kelley reported in Nextgov/FCW that, like ChatGPT, Claude would be available to agencies across the federal government for $1 for a year. John Curran in MeriTalk noted that Anthropic’s offering includes technical support to help agencies rapidly implement AI into their productivity and mission workflows. A statement from Anthropic said the offering combines “broad accessibility with uncompromising security standards [to help] ensure AI serves the public interest,” according to an article in FedScoop by Nazzaro. Some observers are concerned that these deeply discounted services will result in the government setting itself up for vendor lock-in after the introductory price runs out, as noted in a report from Chris Riotta in GovInfoSecurity. xAI was reportedly going to be included in an agreement with GSA as well until its Grok chatbot began praising Hitler, as reported in Wired by Zoe Schiffer and Makena Kelly.
  • Noting that no major AI provider has been authorized by FedRAMP, Rebecca Heilweil wrote in FedScoop that the GSA is looking to speed up security reviews for AI companies in light of the new deals that have been announced.
  • Nick Wakeman reported in Washington Technology on yet another deeply discounted AI offering via GSA OneGov for AI tools from Box, a provider of cloud storage and collaboration tools. A statement from Box said the offering will allow for collaboration within and outside an agency, Nazzaro wrote. MeriTalk’s Grace Dille covered the announcement, adding that the discounted offer will be available via Carahsoft through August 2026.

Defense Department AI

There was news this week about new AI plans, deployments and capabilities from the Pentagon and across three military services branches. Here is a sampling of the headlines we saw over the past week:

  • Pentagon officials revealed that AI will play a central role in the Golden Dome air-defense system, from helping to integrate today’s sensors and interceptors to accelerating the detection and tracking of threats, according to details published by Patrick Tucker of Defense One.
  • Several publications covered the results of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s inaugural competition for using AI to quickly find and patch vulnerabilities in software. Justin Doubleday reported in Federal News Network that a cyber reasoning system designed by “Team Atlanta” was picked as the winner of the overall competition. Shaun Waterman wrote in Air & Space Forces Magazine that the contestants built slightly different Large Language Model toolsets designed to scan a software library of more than 54 million lines of code for hidden flaws. In her coverage of the competition, Lisbeth Perez of MeriTalk noted that competitors identified 54 synthetic vulnerabilities and patched 43.
  • The Army signaled its intention to procure AI-based chatbots to help the U.S. Military Academy at West Point attract high school applicants, according to an article by Jon Harper in DefenseScoop. Harper’s colleague Mikayla Easley interviewed the Army’s CIO, who emphasized the service’s goal to optimize its use of AI in a way that it doesn’t break the bank.
  • The Marine Corps released its inaugural AI implementation plan designed to transform the service into an AI-enabled force by 2030, Ross Gianfortune reported in GovCIO Media. In a related piece in Breaking Defense, Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. quoted a speech by the Navy’s chief data and AI officer on the service’s data and AI weaponization strategy due in the fall.
  • The Air Force wants to buy AI-fueled wargaming tools to play out potential battle scenarios against adversaries like China, Harper wrote in DefenseScoop. In the first entry in the publication’s three-part series examining how the Air Force is experimenting with AI for battle management, Easley went in depth on the service’s plan to understand exactly what warfighters consider when conducting command and control operations and how AI can improve decision making.

Events Next Week

Below, we present several upcoming events that might be worth your time in the coming week:

That’s a wrap for this week. As always, I encourage you to subscribe to this newsletter on LinkedIn or via the form below and share it with your colleagues. Please return next week for more trending news from the government tech media!

This Week in Government Tech Media – In Your Inbox!

Fill out the form below to receive the blog via email each week.