This Week in Government Tech Media – August 22, 2025

By Brad Bass /

As usual, we saw a flood of stories focused on government artificial intelligence (AI) this week. We also noticed what seemed like a renewed focus on Defense cybersecurity and several pieces on attempts to improve government online interactions. You can find details and links below in my weekly roundup of trending stories:

The Pros and Cons of Federal AI

As I noted last week (and the week before and the week before that…), the federal government has not slowed down in its rush to embrace generative AI. However, this week, we saw a few notes of caution reported in the government tech press – alongside the usual reports of agencies pushing forward with new AI endeavors. Here’s a sampling of the articles we saw:

  • The march toward generative AI in government continued with the announcement that the General Services Administration (GSA) reached terms with Google for discounted pricing to federal agencies for a “Gemini for Government” services suite that includes the agentic AI solutions, according to a piece written by John Curran for MeriTalk.
  • The GSA also this week expanded its AI efforts with the release of a broad request for information seeking feedback from industry on how to bring AI into efforts to update the entire procurement ecosystem, Ross Wilkers noted in Washington Technology.
  • Madison Alder wrote in FedScoop that some Department of Energy research labs have been looking at the Chinese AI platform DeepSeek to determine if elements of it may be appropriate for use within the department.
  • But at least one company is concerned about the federal government’s rush into AI. Wilkers’ colleague Nick Wakeman broke the news that AI company Ask Sage has filed a protest against GSA’s pacts with OpenAI and Anthropic, claiming the awards circumvented acquisitions regulations, lack required security authorizations and mislead agencies about actual costs and capabilities.
  • We saw some less positive coverage related to AI in the Department of Defense (DOD) this week. The Pentagon ordered a major overhaul of the military’s AI efforts, including a reorganization that some former officials worry could be seen as a demotion for the DOD’s main AI office, according to an article by Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. for Breaking Defense. In another piece on concerns about DOD AI, Patrick Tucker reported in Defense One that personnel cuts are crippling progress on Advana, a Pentagon data platform key to the department’s AI plans.
  • Perhaps paradoxically in light of Tucker’s reporting on personnel cuts harming AI progress, the new White House chief information officer said this week that the administration is looking to use AI to make up for the loss of thousands of employees across federal agencies, as quoted by Natalie Alms of Nextgov/FCW.

Defense Cyber News From TechNet Augusta and More

Several reporters from defense trade publications reported news related to cybersecurity initiatives at the DOD – including news from the AFCEA TechNet Augusta conference this week:

  • Mark Pomerleau covered the TechNet conference for DefenseScoop (despite news that he is moving to Breaking Defense), reporting on the Army Cyber Command’s new Theater Information Advantage Detachment that will help the service compete against adversaries at lower-level phases of disputes short of full blown armed conflict.
  • Also reporting from Augusta, Carley Welch of Breaking Defense interviewed the Army’s new principal cyber advisor, Brandon Pugh, who said the service needs to better leverage AI for cyber at the operational level instead of just at the enterprise level as the DOD has been doing for a few years. Welch also wrote from Augusta that sources told her they mostly have faith in the long-term prospects of America’s cyber leadership, but cuts to the Pentagon’s cyber workforce are likely to increase risk in the short term.
  • Kimberly Underwood of AFCEA’s own publication SIGNAL Media covered a speech at the conference by Lt. Gen. Paul Stanton, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency and commander of the Defense Cyber Defense Command (DCDC), who said the recent elevation of the DCDC better positions warfighters to protect the Department of Defense Information Network (DODIN) from adversaries.
  • This focus on cyber appears warranted as cyberattacks on the Pentagon persist. This week, Brandi Vincent reported in DefenseScoop that the “Rapper Bot” Distributed Denial of Service-for-hire botnet impacted the DODIN in at least three attacks between April and August.
  • David Roza of Air & Space Forces Magazine reported on the trend of the Air Force shifting away from missions that don’t keep pace with modern warfare, illustrated by the formation of a new cyber squadron in the New Jersey Air National Guard.
  • So this is weird. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is looking to improve the security of covert hidden communications networks for military and intelligence applications, also known by insiders as “weird networks,” according to an article by John Keller in Military-Aerospace Electronics.

Government by Design

The term “design” popped up in several articles this week, including one on yet another presidential executive order:

  • The White House issued an executive order late this week setting up a new “America by Design” initiative to improve how Americans experience government online and in-person, according to a report from Alms of Nextgov/FCW. 
  • On her “Federal Drive” program on Federal News Network, Terry Gerton interviewed a representative from the nonprofit Code For America about how the organization works with state governments on human-centered design — an approach to improve access to Medicaid benefits by putting users’ real-world needs at the center of digital services.
  • The staff at Government Technology reported that the National Association of State Chief Information Officers issued a report this week extolling a design-first approach in which state enterprise architectures would be built into the earliest stages of project planning, rather than being introduced after programs are already underway. In his coverage for StateScoop, Colin Wood quoted the report’s author as stating the design-first approach employs “the same principles used to design advanced creations like spacecraft, a factory or cities.”

Upcoming Industry Events

Here’s a list of upcoming events that might interest you in the coming weeks:

Speaking of the Billington event, here’s a shameless plug: Check out the video interview between W2 Communications co-founder and principal, Evan Weisel, and Billington Cybersecurity’s president, Troy Schneider, previewing the conference! Also, I encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the Federal News Network podcast “Amtower Off Center,” in which government marketing guru Mark Amtower interviewed Evan about branding and thought leadership.

Thanks for reading! Please subscribe to this newsletter on LinkedIn or via the form below. Enjoy the upcoming Labor Day weekend, and come back in two weeks for the next roundup for the top trending news from the government tech media!

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