At Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), agility drives the mission. That means using Software as a Service (SaaS) wherever possible and innovating where it’s not – including with artificial intelligence (AI).
ARPA-H Chief Information Officer Nikolaos Ipiotis said the research funding agency is using AI to address specific problems, such as identifying cybersecurity risks to hospitals and keeping patching up to date, while also supporting its two AI environments: one for internal operations and another for external users.
The agency is also now using AI to teach people how to use AI.
“Even at our agency, I would say 90 plus percent of the people that are leveraging AI … don’t know how to use AI. So, I think the biggest issue with AI is that we have to … change the culture of how best to leverage it to augment their abilities,” Ipiotis said while speaking at an ACT-IAC event Tuesday in Tysons, Va.
“The more proficient you are to ask the right questions, the better answers you will get,” he added, explaining that by using the correct prompts, employees and researchers can cut down on their work time and get more out of AI.
To support that culture change, Ipiotis told MeriTalk in a follow-up conversation that ARPA-H has designed a “prompt master” AI that teaches employees how to use AI.
Though ARPA-H sometimes builds its own AI – about 5% of the agency’s cloud environment – roughly 95% of its environment is SaaS. That mix gives the agency the flexibility to shut down in-house tools if a similar industry service or product becomes available, Ipiotis explained, noting that the agency doesn’t want to build something that already exists.
Beyond helping train employees, ARPA-H is also using AI to help identify cybersecurity risks in hospitals, Ipiotis said, which is part of an initiative launched on Oct. 20 by the new ARPA-H Director Alicia Jackson.
The initiative, dubbed the Universal Patching and Remediation for Autonomous Defense (UPGRADE) program, provides hospital IT teams with resources needed to detect and address cyber threats.
“Hospitals face unique security challenges that can directly impact patient care,” UPGRADE Program Manager Andrew Carney said in a statement. “With UPGRADE, we’re empowering healthcare IT teams with the tools to proactively defend their complex web of medical device systems against ransomware attacks, so care is uninterrupted, and patients are safe.”
Looking ahead, Ipiotis said the agency is focused on building agile, independent IT systems while cutting technical debt and prioritizing customer-driven projects based on shifting needs. But, he added that, “AI is something that we’re talking about right now.”