Today’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a very different organization from the one that was created in 2002 in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on New York City and Washington D.C. While the core of the mission is protecting borders and the homeland from threats, DHS has matured its focus from counter-terrorism prevention to include a wider definition of threats to the homeland, including immigration control at the southern border.
At the same time, as the mission has evolved, technology has also undergone a fundamental transformation. The maturation of artificial intelligence (AI) has enabled DHS and CBP to put their vast data repositories to work to improve border security and support administration priorities around immigration. In a new webinar from GovCIO, the CIO of the Customs and Border Patrol agency, Sonny Bhagowalia and Derrick Pledger, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Maximus discussed how the agency is using AI and data in pursuit of this mission.
While the agency is driving change and delivering mission success, this data driven transformation is not without some obstacles. As Pledger and Bhagowalia discussed in their conversation, there are two principle challenges agencies will face on their data and AI journeys – data quality and interoperability. Without high-quality, verified data, any decisioning made by Generative AI tools will likely not be reliable, leading to erroneous admissions or mistaken deportations. Equally, without the ability to quickly access and integrate critical data from other agencies, the CBP and DHS do not have a complete view of either physical or cyber threats.
“We want to do innovation at the speed of mission … We want to use cutting edge tech on the frontlines to support our agents,” shared Bhagowalia. “It’s important that we deliver on the mission faster, better, and more affordably to keep America safe and execute on the President’s priorities.”
Catch the conversation between Bhagowalia and Pledger above.