State to develop new AI marketplace for staff

Secretary Antony J. Blinken delivers remarks on American Diplomacy for a New Era at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia, October 30, 2024. Chuck Kennedy/State Department

The State Department is taking new steps in its modernization plan that will marry advanced technologies with ongoing diplomatic efforts, continuing its expansion into leveraging artificial intelligence for daily operations.

Matthew Graviss, State’s chief data and artificial intelligence officer, told Nextgov/FCW that his agency is treating its AI endeavors as programs, not products. 

“It's something that we're really focused on maturing and adding more and more capabilities through our journey for years to come,” Graviss said on Thursday. “We're not staying static.”

The agency recently incorporated its Foreign Affairs Manual into its internal chatbot’s parameters to enable the software to deliver summary responses on dense information, he explained. 

Further down the road, State is working on ...